Category: Poland

Domanski Zakrzewski Palinka (DZP) has announced that it has become a supporting member of the Polish Council for Supplements and Nutritional Foods (PCSNF).

DZP will be represented at the Association by Tomasz Kaczynski, Senior Associate in the firm’s Life Sciences Practice.

DZP’s responsibilities will include making sure that the PCSNF adapts legal regulations to the current state of knowledge regarding dietary supplements, supporting organizational units and individuals involved in the supplements and nutritional foods sector, lobbying for favorable political and legal conditions for the functioning of the supplements and nutritional foods sector to facilitate the sector’s development, representing the interests of PCSNF members in court, and providing advice and organizational, economic, and training assistance for members and other entities interested in the Association’s activity.  

The PCSNF was founded in 2004. It represents the interests of manufacturers of dietary supplements and functional foods and stimulates sector development. It is a member of the International Alliance of Dietary/Food Supplement Associations and the European Federation of Associations of Health Product Manufacturers, and it co-operates closely with the European Responsible Nutrition Alliance. 

Gessel has announced that Managing Associate Adam Kraszewski was appointed vice president of the Polish Union of Consulting Sector Employers of the Lewiatan Confederation.

Kraszewski specializes in employment law and intellectual property law at Gessel.

The Polish Union of Consulting Sector Employers was founded in 1998 and its current membership comprises 59 entities, including consulting firms, law firms, training firms, and vocational counseling entities. It provides advocacy to the benefit of its members in their dealings with trade unions and public authorities. Its representatives contribute to legislative work at the national and European Union level and assist government and parliamentary committees on legislative projects.

Gessel has advised the Warsaw-based Comperia.pl on its initial public offering, including the drafting of its issue prospectus concerning shares from the new issue and transfer of its existing shares from the NewConnect market to the main floor of the Warsaw Securities Exchange.

The Gessel lawyers involved in the project included Partner Leszek Koziorowski and Of Counsel Tomasz Dragowski.

Comperia.pl is an IT company which operates Poland’s first Internet platform providing a comparison of banking and financial products.

The issue of ordinary F-series bearer shares in Comperia.pl was effectuated by way of open subscriptions within a public offering between February 1 and 14, 2014 (on the basis of the issue prospectus approved by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority on January 30, 2014), and resulted in the acquisition of 575,000 shares by an assortment of institutional and private investors. The attendant share capital increase was entered in the National Court Register on February 27, 2014. Along with the remaining bearer shares of the company (listed on the NewConnect market within the alternative trading system), the F-series shares in Comperia.pl are now the object of proceedings geared at securing permission for listing on the main floor of the Warsaw Securities Exchange, and their first listing is expected in the second half of March 2014. 

The FKA Law Firm has announced that the Polish Minister of Justice has appointed FKA Partner Jaroslaw Grzywinski to the State Examination Committee for conducting the Polish bar examination in 2014.

Grzywinski, who joined FKA in December of 2013, was appointed the Deputy Head of the Examination Committee. He specializes in Real Estate and Infrastructure and is a member of the Polish National Council of Legal Advisers.

The Polish Wardynski & Partners law firm has announced that it has become the exclusive Polish member of BECTELLA, an international organization of law firms specializing in employment and tax law. 

BECTELLA — the acronym for the Benefits, Executive Compensation, Tax, Employment and Labor Law Alliance — is made up of law firms specializing in employment law (including issues of executive compensation and employee benefits). The member firms come from 20 different countries around the world. The organization is a platform for the exchange of know-how among member firms, better enabling them to carry out cross-border projects in the area of employment law.

CEE Legal Matters covered the four firms in CEE joining the alliance on February 13, 2014. These were Karanovic & Nikolic (with offices in Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia, and Montenegro), PRK Partners (in the Czech Republic), LAWIN (in Latvia), and Wardynski & Partners (in Poland). The association was founded by Kenneth Raskin, a Partner at King & Spalding in New York.

Wierzbowski Eversheds has entered into a three-year agreement to provide ongoing legal services to EDF Polska.

EDF Polska will be served by a team led by Attorney Lukasz Jankowski, Head of Wierzbowski Eversheds’ Energy Practice.

The EDF Group is a a significant player on the European electricity market, and is integrated across the areas of power generation, transmission, distribution, trading and sale. In Poland EDF has a 10% share of the electricity market and a 15% share of the district heating market. It is also the largest foreign investor in the power industry.

The EDF Group is one of Eversheds key clients internationally. Lawyers from the firm have advised EDF in France and the UK on such matters as concessions, construction and expansion of power infrastructure, and representation before courts and administrative agencies. Under the recently signed agreement, Wierzbowski Eversheds will provide legal support for selected areas of operations of EDF Polska.

Jankowski said of the agreement that: “The electricity market is a fairly difficult area to operate in, for example due to frequent changes in national law required to implement EU regulations. The activities of companies on the market are also subject to oversight by energy and competition regulators, and therefore companies with a significant market share, such as EDF Polska, seek a law firm that can not only advise on energy law, but when needed is also in a position to provide services in other areas, such as employment, competition and environmental law.”

According to Jankowski, “Establishing cooperation with such a strong company as EDF is proof of the high standing of our practice on the Polish energy market, and reinforces the position of Eversheds internationally. We are confident that our future cooperation will lead to a stronger and growing relationship with the EDF Group.”

Gide Loyrette Nouel has acted for Unibail-Rodamco on a EUR 200 million refinancing of the Galeria Mokotow Shopping Centre in Warsaw.  

The firm classified the deal as “one of the most significant real estate financing projects on the Polish retail market.” The new credit facility was extended by Berlin Hyp AG and Helaba Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen.

Galeria Mokotow, which opened in 2000, is the second largest shopping centre in Poland, with a total retail area of 62,500 square meters.

Unibail-Rodamco was advised by Gide Partner Hugues Moreau, and Associates Mateusz Gronau & Pawel Jaskiewicz.

In an item related to the story reported by CEE Legal Matters on February 7,  Norton Rose Fulbright has announced that it advised J.P. Morgan and Bank of America Merrill Lynch as global coordinators on the EUR 900 million high-yield bond offering of P4 Sp. (the Polish mobile network operator operating under the ”PLAY” brand).

The funds raised were used to refinance PLAY’s existing funding arrangements and distributed to PLAY’s shareholders. The debt offering consisted of EUR 600 million fixed rate senior secured notes due in 2019, PLN 130 million (EUR 30 million) floating rate senior secured notes due in 2019, and EUR 270 million fixed rate senior notes due in 2019. The transaction also involved a PLN 400 million revolving credit facility granted to PLAY by Bank Zachodni WBK (Santander Group) and Alior Bank.

Norton Rose described the transaction as “one of the largest ever EUR denominated high-yield bond offerings made by a company based in Central and Eastern Europe.”

Grzegorz Dyczkowski, Partner in the Warsaw office of Norton Rose Fulbright, commented that:“The issuance of high-yield bonds by PLAY is one of the most significant transactions in the Polish and European debt securities market in recent years. Polish companies are with increasing frequency seeking financing from the international capital markets in addition to or in place of bank financing. We are very pleased that we have, in cooperation with our clients, PLAY Group and other advisers, brought this transaction to a close within an extremely short timeframe and at a price very advantageous to PLAY.”

The Warsaw team was led by Partners Dyczkowski and Piotr Strawa, assisted by Tomasz Rogalski, Marta Kawecka, Krzysztof Gorzelak, Agnieszka Braciszewska, Joanna Braciszewska-Szarapa, Jan Grochowicz, Michal Blaszkiewicz, Adrian Kozinski, Konrad Leszko, Daniel Popek and Aneta Janecka.

Latham & Watkins acted as English and New York legal counsel to the global coordinators. PLAY was advised by White & Case. Mandated lead arrangers and agent under the revolving credit facility were advised by CMS Cameron McKenna.

Citibank, N.A., London Branch acted as security agent and was advised by Reed Smith.

Dentons acted as legal counsel to a syndicate of Polish banks on the PLN 495 million (approximately USD 162 million) multipurpose financing to Inter Cars.

The syndicate consisted of Bank Polska Kasa Opieki, Bank Handlowy w Warszawie, BRE Bank, ING Bank Slaski S.At.  Inter Cars is the biggest automotive spare parts distributor for passenger cars, commercial vehicles and trucks in Middle-Eastern Europe.

Dentons lawyers in Poland, Ukraine, the Slovak Republic, Romania, and the Czech Republic assisted on the transaction. The Dentons Warsaw team was led by Partner Mateusz Toczyski, with support from Associates Katarzyna Blachnio and Bartosz Nojek. The Dentons Kiev team was led by Partner Natalya Selyakova, with support from Associates Anna Makedonska and Oleg Zaiats.

Gessel has advised Highlander Partners — working through its AKOMEX portfolio company — on the purchase of DRUK-PAK, a cardboard packaging producer listed on Warsaw’s NewConnect exchange.

AKOMEX, established in Gdansk in 1993, is itself a producer of solid and corrugated cardboard packaging, mainly for the foodstuffs and cosmetics industries, and was included in the Highlander Partners portfolio of companies in 2010. The combination of the two companies resulting from this transaction will be one of Poland’s largest producers of consumer packaging. 

The Gessel team working on the transaction was led by Partner Marcin Macieszczak and Managing Associate Monika Woloszka.