Category: Poland

Former Wierzbowski Eversheds Sutherland Partner and Head of Energy Lukasz Jankowski has joined DLA Piper Warsaw as Counsel in the firm’s Litigation & Regulatory practice.

Jankowski’s practice focuses on energy law, with a particular emphasis on the electricity and natural gas markets. According to DLA Piper, “he has many years of experience providing legal advice for the energy sector, and has implemented a number of projects for trading companies and distribution system operators, including infrastructure proceedings and regulatory proceedings before the Court of Competition and Consumer Protection.” The firm reports that he “supports clients in regulatory matters, including concessions, tariffs, and cases regarding fines imposed by the president of the Energy Regulatory Office.”

Jankowski joined Wierzbowski Eversheds Sutherland in January 2016 after a year as Head of Energy with the Chalas i Wspolnicy Law Firm and four and a half years in-house with Innogy Polska. He also spent almost three years with the Kalwas & Partners Law Firm from 2005-2007.

Jankowski move to DLA Piper comes shortly after that of Marek Sawicki and Jakub Marcinkowski from CMS as reported by CEE Legal Matters on September 5, 2019 and Counsel Adriana Mierzwa-Bronikowska and Senior Associate Agnieszka Chylinska from Hogan Lovells as reported on August 29, 2019. 

In a joint statement, DLA Piper Warsaw Co-Managing Partners Krzysztof Kycia and Jacek Gizinski said: “The CEE region continues to be a strategic focus of the firm, and these hires will create an even stronger platform from which to service our clients. Marek and Jakub’s appointment is a key part of our growth strategy in Poland and the wider CEE region, as we continue to develop our market leading cross-border Corporate and Private Equity practices. These appointments along with Adriana, Agnieszka, and Lukasz’s are a further demonstration of our commitment to continue to invest in our business to strengthen and deepen our offering. We anticipate significant opportunities across the region and we are confident that these new hires will play a key role in the further development of our capabilities.”

Former Clifford Chance Counsel Rafal Zakrzewski has joined Baker McKenzie Warsaw as a Partner.

Zakrzewski specializes in English corporate and commercial law and has significant experience in multi-jurisdictional transactions and cross-border and domestic corporate finance transactions, particularly involving syndicated lending, project finance, acquisition finance, and real estate finance.

He received his law degree from the University of Queensland in Australia in 1996 and a subsequent LL.M. from Oxford in 2003. He joined Clifford Chance in 2006. 

DWF Poland, working with K&L Gates, has advised Tauron Polska Energia S.A. on the acquisition of five wind farms located in the north of Poland with a total capacity of 180 MW from the In.Ventus Group. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer advised the In.Ventus group on the deal.

The farms were purchased through special purpose vehicles established for this purpose for approximately EUR 137 million. 

The DWF Poland team included Partners Karol Lasocki, Oskar Waluskiewicz, Rafal Wozniak, Maciej Jamka, Filip Urbaniak, and Marcin Trepka, Counsels Malgorzata Lesiak-Cwikowska and Wiktoria Rogaska, Senior Associates Magdalena Trzepizur, Piotr Moskala, Piotr Kocol, and Lukasz Gembis, Associates Olga Wisniewska-Pietrzak, Maria Kierska, Piotr Michajlow, Martyna Wurm, and Michal Bystrzynski, and Junior Associate Paulina Galewska.

Domanski Zakrzewski Palinka has successfully represented Dobra Energia Olsztyna in a challenge to its selection via a tender process to construct a new combined heat and power plant in Olsztyn by way of a public-private partnership.

Dobra Energia is a special purpose company set up by Paris-based Meridiam Eastern Europe Investments SAS and Madrid-based Urbaser S.A.

On August 12, after four hearings, Poland’s National Appeal Chamber dismissed in full an appeal of the result of the tender procedure brought by a competitor of Dobra Energia. This means that Dobra Energia will be able to execute a contract with Miejskie Przedsiebiorstwo Energetyki Cieplnej, a municipal heating company that provides heat to over 60% of Olsztyn. The project is set to last for 25 years and the installation will also serve the municipal waste needs of the Warminsko-Mazurskie voivodship in Poland.

The Domanski Zakrzewski Palinka team included Partner Katarzyna Kuzma and Senior Associates Tomasz Michalczyk and Michal Wojciechowski.

Linklaters has advised Austrian real estate investor and hotel developer UBM Development AG on the sale of a new Holiday Inn hotel in Gdansk, Poland, to an institutional investment fund managed by the German Union Investment Real Estate GmbH. Greenberg Traurig advised the buyer on the deal.

The total value of the deal is EUR 38.25 million. UBM Development will continue to operate the hotel, and day-to-day management will be handled by the InterContinental Hotels Group under the Holiday Inn brand.

The Linklaters team was led by Counsel Michal Miecinski and included Senior Associates Zuzanna Lipska and Zaneta Rogon and Associates Patrycja Czarnecka and Kacper Piorecki.

Editor’s Note: After this article was published, Greenberg Traurig informed CEE Legal Matters that its team was led by Partner Radomil Charzynski and Local Partner Karol Brzoskowski, supported by Associate Samanta Wenda-Uszynska.

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Dentons has advised Atrium Poland on its EUR 43 million acquisition of Warsaw’s King Cross Praga shopping mall (minus the hypermarket part of the complex) from the PFCEE Dutch Holding fund, an affiliate of CBRE Global Investors. Clifford Chance advised PFCEE on the deal.

King Cross Praga, which opened in 1996, hosts more than 70 retail and service outlets in its 27,000-square-meter space.

The Dentons team included Partner Piotr Staniszewski, Senior Associate Magdalena Osobka-Morawska, and Associate Magdalena Witka.

The Clifford Chance team included Counsel Bartosz Kaniasty and Senior Associate Katarzyna Paczek.

Former CMS Partners Marek Sawicki and Jakub Marcinkowski have moved, along with a team, to DLA Piper in Warsaw.

Sawicki, who becomes Corporate Co-Head and Head of Private Equity at DLA Piper, served as head of the CMS Corporate/M&A practice in Warsaw and chaired the firm’s Life Sciences & Healthcare group in Poland. He graduated from the Nicolaus Copernicus University in 1992 with a degree in law and worked with both Baker McKenzie and CMS before joining DLA Piper.

Marcinkowski focuses on M&A, private equity and venture capital transactions. He obtained his law degree from the University of Warsaw in 2004, and moved to CMS in 2007 after two years with Baker McKenzie.

In a joint statement, Co-Managing Partners of DLA Piper Warsaw, Krzysztof Kycia and Jacek Gizinski expressed their enthusiasm at their new partners, saying: “Marek and Jakub’s appointment is a key part of our growth strategy in Poland and the wider CEE region. They each bring an outstanding reputation, a high level of expertise and strong client relationships, which perfectly complement our global business. Marek and Jakub are market-leading practitioners, well recognized by the local market and we are confident that they will make a significant contribution in further developing our corporate capabilities in the region.” 

The team coming with Sawicki and Marcinkowski includes Counsel Rafal Kluziak, Senior Associates Izabela Gebal and Michal Gintowt, and Associates Karolina Stepaniuk and Jakub Szczygiel, all of whom, DLA Piper reports, “have significant experience in public and private M&A, private equity, capital markets, and financial instruments.”

CMS has advised the owners of Kino Swiat, a film distributor in Poland, on the sale to ITI Neovision S.A, the operator of the nc+ platform. Domanski Zakrzewski Palinka advised ITI Neovision on the deal, which remains contingent on the approval of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection.

The transaction will result in ITI Neovision controlling 70% of shares in Kino Swiat, with 30% remaining in the hands of Tomasz Karczewski and Marcin Piasecki who, as members of the management board, will play an active role in managing and developing the company.

The CMS team included Partner Rafal Zwierz, Senior Associates Magdalena Zmyslowska, Agnieszka Starzynska, and Maciej Andrzejewski, Associate Mateusz Wisnjewski, Lawyers Jakub Rykowski, Natalia Szurnicka, and Michal Tutaj, and Advocate Marta Osowska-Buba.

The DZP team included Partner Marek Swiatkowski and Senior Associate Damian Szczygielski.

Ringier Axel Springer Polska, the publisher of Polish editions of Newsweek, Forbes, Business Insider, and Politico, among other magazines, has chosen Kochanski & Partners — which, in one form or another, has been advising the company for the past 16 years in transactional matters and matters related to media, intellectual property, taxes, and labor law, as well as with various disputes — as its sole law firm for litigation in Poland.

Ringier Axel Springer Polska is part of the the Zurich-headquartered Ringier Axel Springer Media AG group, which was founded in 2010 by Germany’s Axel Springer SE and Switzerland’s Ringier AG, and which publishes and administrates over 160 newspapers and websites in Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and Serbia. It employs nearly 3,000 employees.

Axel Springer SE recently accepted the offer of KKR to acquire a 43.54% shareholding for EUR 63 per share, valuing the company at EUR 6.8 billion. The transaction, which is expected to close in upcoming months, will make KKR the largest shareholder of Axel Springer SE.

Bird & Bird has advised Exeter Property Group on the acquisition of a logistics park in Sosnowiec, Poland, from Biuro Inwestycji Kapitalowych. Biuro Inwestycji Kapitalowych was advised by Kancelaria Kozlowski.

The property contains a logistics center consisting of three warehouses with a total area of 35,000 square meters.

Exeter is a real estate investment management firm specializing in the acquisition, development, leasing, and management of industrial and related business park properties across North America and Europe. Biuro Inwestycji Kapitalowych is a developer specializing in the construction and rental of modern storage areas.

The Bird & Bird team was led by Counsel Marcin Swierzewski and included Senior Associate Michal Prochwicz and Associates Edyta Deszczka and Paulina Pawlowska.

The Kancelaria Kozlowski team was led by Partner Robert Kozlowski.