Category: Poland

Greenberg Traurig has represented Mazovia Capital in the sale of the Mazovia Plaza office building to M7, a pan-European investor and asset manager.

The Mazovia Plaza office building, which is located in the historical district of Nowa Praga in Warsaw, offers over 5,000 square meters of leasable area. According to Greenberg Traurig, t was built in the 1950s as part of the socialist realism building complex of the Praga II housing project, designed by Jerzy Gieysztor. “Originally, the firm reports, “the building was intended as a workers’ hostel, and for many years it functioned as the ‘Nova Praga’ city hotel. In 2000, it underwent a thorough modernization and became the headquarters of Strabag. In May 2016, it was acquired by the Mazovia Capital fund, an investment company specializing in the purchase and management of real estate and implementation of new projects as a developer.”

The Greenberg Traurig team was supervised by Partner Agata Jurek-Zbrojska and led by Local Partner Justyna Szwech, supported by Senior Associate Zuzanna Bafia and Associate Agnieszka Stopinska.

Greenberg Traurig reported that it was unable to provide additional information about the deal. 

SSW has advised Skanska S.A. on its sale of 11 bituminous mass plants and other assets to Colas Polska sp. z o.o. Crido Legal advised Colas Polska on the transaction, which it valued at approximately PLN 120 million.

Crido Legal describes it as “one of the largest transactions on the road and motorway construction market in recent years,” and reports that, in addition to the bituminous mass plants, Colas also acquired over 130 construction machines and approximately 330 operational employees and 20 teams that lay bituminous mass. According to the firm, “the transaction will enable Colas, which has been doing business in the western part of the country for over 20 years, to expand throughout Poland.|

“Transactions on the construction market are becoming a reality,” commented Crido Legal Partner Mateusz Rogozinski. “Consolidation is unavoidable and it arises from the increasingly higher costs of operations and the lack of appropriate employees. Small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as larger companies, will increasingly frequently be acquisition targets for the large players. The transaction conducted for Colas is one of the largest recent transactions on the road and motorway construction market. It will enable our client to conduct business throughout the country in the long term.”

The SSW team was managed by Partner Pawel Chyb and included Partners Tomasz Wickel, Katarzyna Solarz, and Maciej Duch, Senior Associate Adam Pawlisz, and Associates Marta Szymczyk, Przemyslaw Szabat, and Magdalena Klimczyk.

The Crido Legal team consisted of Rogozinski and Associate Magdalena Purol, supported by lawyer Dominika Mazur and Associate Michal Furgalski. Crido’s tax team was managed by Tax Managing Partner Pawel Tonski. 

Crido Legal has advised Akademia Pilkarska Legii Sp. z o.o. — a special purpose vehicle of Legia Warszawa S.A. — on its establishment of a modern football training complex in the Grodzisk Mazowiecki municipality of Poland.

According to Crido Legal, “the total value of the investment project is over PLN 80 million. The Legia Training Center will be the most modern training centre in Poland, with six pitches (five with a natural surface and one with an artificial surface – covered with a pneumatic hall for the autumn-winter season). The project also includes the construction of a hotel part, lecture rooms, and dormitories for players aged 13–18 years, as well as a LegiaLab R&D Center.  The end of construction and the start of relocation are planned for June 2020.”

Crido Legal advised on the purchase of the property and on obtaining financing from Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego S.A.

“We faced new challenges during the negotiations because the project is a pioneering project, both in purely sports terms and in terms of the financial structure,” commented Senior Associate Filip Badziak, who heads the banking and finance practice at Crido Legal, and who worked on the project along with Counsel Joanna Winter-Szymanska. “That is all the more reason why we at Crido Legal are happy that we were able to advise on it. We hope it will pave the way for further projects of this type in the region and will mean that banks will more willingly finance such investment projects.” 

Chajec, Don-Siemion & Zyto has advised biotechnology company Pharmena S.A. on the process of transferring shares to the Warsaw Stock Exchange from the NewConnect market where it has been listed since 2008.

On March 19, 2019, the Polish Financial Supervision Authority approved Pharmena’s prospectus.

CDZ prepared the legal part of the prospectus and, in cooperation with Vestor Dom Maklerski S.A., an independent domestic financial institution, represented Pharmena before the Polish Financial Supervision Authority in proceedings regarding the approval of the prospectus. 

The next step, CDZ reports, will be the process of listing Pharmena on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. According to the CDZ, the public offering of the Pharmena stocks is designed to boost sales of innovative products based on 1-methylnicotinamide chloride (1-MNA) — a physiological and natural active substance that is registered as a new food in the European Union (and which is already patented in Poland and Europe. Pharmena is aiming at registering the molecule in China, India, Japan, and Australia, and to continue research on the drug in other clinical models.

Pharmena President Konrad Palka commented: “In December we started the sale of the first product in Poland. We intend to expand our product portfolio under a new brand and to gain a foothold in foreign markets. We are confident that our recently launched strategy to sell innovative diet supplements which shows an attractive growing market and our products’ potential on European markets will encourage investors to take part in the upcoming offer.”

The CDZ team was led by Partner Maciej Kotlicki, supported by Legal Advisor Piotr Rychta. 

Linklaters has advised Globalworth Poland on its EUR 37 million acquisition of the Rondo Business Park office complex in Krakow.

According to Linklaters, the acquired buildings are currently leased by Capgemini, UPC, Lux Med, and Crif, among others, and were purchased from German open-ended real estate investment fund CS Property Dynamic. 

The Linklaters team included Counsel Michal Miecinski, Managing Associate Agnieszka Mencel, Senior Associates Monika Lerka and Bartosz Guzinski, Associates Jedrzej Palka and Michal Pekala, and Junior Associates Malgorzata Szafranska and Justyna Glinka.

Last year, Linklaters advised Globalworth on the acquisitions of the Skylight and Lumen complex and Spektrum Tower (as reported by CEE Legal Matters on November 21, 2018).

Linklaters did not reply to our inquiries about the deal. 

Jara Drapala & Partners, working with SWS Strykowski Wachowiak, has successfully represented Mostostal Warszawa S.A., one of Poland’s largest construction companies, in Poland’s Court of Appeals, in a dispute against Zaklad Unieszkodliwiania Odpadow regarding a contract for the construction of a waste incineration plant in the northwestern city of Szczecin.

According to JDP, WSE-listed Mostostal, “after it had terminated the contract, demanded the return of the paid amounts as a consequence of an unjustified draw-down of the performance bond. JDP successfully proved the abuse of [Mostostal’s] right to draw down the bond whilst arguing that the relevant time to examine whether the [company] had grounds to call the performance bond was the moment of filing such demand, regardless whether any such grounds appeared subsequently.”

The Court of Appeals, following JDP’s line of reasoning, ordered ZUO to return PLN 34 million (approximately EUR 7.85 million) together with statutory interest for delay. ZUO has announced that it is filing a cassation appeal to the Supreme Court. 

WKB Wiercinski Kwiecinski Baehr reportedly represented ZUO.

Finally, according to JDP, firm Partner Przemyslaw Drapala, co-counsel to Mostostal, “secured a final and binding judgment in favor of our client.” 

Linklaters has advised Patron Capital, a European private equity real estate fund, on the acquisition of the 5-star Sheraton Hotel in the center of Warsaw form Benson Elliot and Walton Street JV. Paul Hastings in London and WKB Wiercinski Kwiecinski Baehr in Warsaw advised the joint venture on the sale.

The hotel is one of four Sheraton hotels in Poland. The transaction closed on March 28, 2019 upon receipt of merger clearance from the European Commission. 

Linklaters’ team was led by Managing Associate Adriana Andrzejewska, supported by Senior Associates Bartosz Guzinski and Tomasz Trystula and supervised by Partner Janusz Dzianachowski. The team also included Partner Malgorzata Szwaj, Managing Associate Marta Domino, Senior Associate Wojciech Podlasin, and Associate Barbara Wanat.

The WKB team assisting the Benson Elliot and Walton Street JV throughout the process, including in relation to what the firm calls “a significant pre-transactional restructuring (which involved, among other things, two cross-border merger processes of group companies where the acquiring entities were a Polish and a Dutch company, respectively),” consisted of Partners Jakub Jedrzejak, Ben Davey, and Anna Wyrzykowska, and Senior Associates Magdalena Piszewska, Adrian Michalak, and Krzysztof Wawrzyniak.

WKB was also involved as Polish legal counsel in relation to the initial acquisition of the Sheraton Warsaw by Benson Elliot and Walton Street JV in 2015. 

The Warsaw office of Act Legal has advised Finnish developer YIT on the acquisition of a six-hectare property in the Warsaw district of Bemowo.

According to Act Legal, the intended project, Nordic Bemowo, will feature a residential estate in a perfect location, close to two newly-emerging stations of the second metro line. The construction is expected to be implemented in stages. The current stage of the project involves conceptual and design work.

The Act BSWW team consisted of Managing Partner Michal Wielhorski, Partner Malgorzata Wasowska, and Senior Associates Mateusz Prokopiuk and Michal Soltyszewski.

Act BSWW did not reply to our inquiries about the deal. 

Wierzbowski Eversheds Sutherland has advised Drukarnia Embe Press in Lublin on the sale of 80% of the company’s shares to Innova Capital. Greenberg Traurig advised the buyer on the deal.

Drukarnia Embe Press is a supplier of labels and flexible packaging for the beverage and food industry. As a result of the transaction, the fund gains exposure, as Wierzbowski Eversheds Sutherland defines it, “to an attractive flexible packaging market.”

The founders of Embe Press, Slawomir Bezdek and Marian Mamczarz, will remain minority shareholders in the company and will support its further development from the Supervisory Board position.

Embe Press specializes in the manufacturing of labels utilizing flexographic printing technology, providing printing services, among others, for customers from the beverage and food industry in Poland and abroad. The company will continue focusing on the manufacturing of a range of labels and providing printing services. 

Innova Capital plans to consolidate the flexible packaging market, including labels in Poland and Central Europe. According to Wierzbowski Eversheds Sutherland, this is the third transaction completed from the newest Innova/6 fund, which closed in April 2018. As a financial investor, Innova “will make it possible to follow through with plans for further development, including completing investments in the newly built manufacturing plant as well as ongoing improvement of products and expansion of the product range.”

Wierzbowski Eversheds Sutherland’s team consisted of Partner Michal Karwacki, Senior Associate Natalia Burchardt, Lawyers Krzysztof Wisniewski and Kamil Ciodyk, and Associate Zofia Piekarczyk.

The Greenberg Traurig team consisted of Managing Partner Jaroslaw Grzesiak, Partners Pawel Piotrowski, Andrzej Wysokinski, and Aleksander Janiszewski, and included Senior Associates Agata Wisniewska, Radoslaw Pawluk, and Mateusz Koronkiewicz, and Associates Agnieszka Stopinska and Katarzyna Goljan.

Editor’s Note: The article was updated to include additional members of the Greenberg Traurig team.