Category: Serbia

BDK Advokati has advised Resource Partners on its acquisition of World Class, the Serbian arm of the European gym and fitness chain, with two clubs in Novi Sad.

Resource Partners is a private equity investor focusing exclusively on targets in Central and Eastern Europe.  

The BDK team was led by Senior Partner Vladimir Dasic, supported by Associate Marija Doci.

CMS Serbia has advised South Stream on its agreements with Gazprom subsidiary Centrgaz regarding the construction of the section of the South Stream natural gas pipeline that will pass through Serbian territory.  

The South Stream is a planned gas pipeline to transport Russian natural gas through the Black Sea to Bulgaria and through Serbia, Hungary, and Slovenia, on to Austria. Construction of the Russian onshore facilities for the pipeline started in December 2012.

The agreement on the construction of the South Stream gas pipeline was signed in Belgrade on Tuesday, July 8, 2014. Gazprom subsidiary Centrgaz will be building the section passing through Serbian territory. CMS Partner Radivoje Petrikic, the head of the firm’s Serbian office, describes the project as “Serbia’s largest infrastructure project.” CMS also claims that, at a contract value of EUR 2.1 billion, the project amounts to the largest foreign investment in Serbia to this time.

CMS lawyers working on the deal included Petrikic, Marija Marosan, Jovana Stevovic, Ljubinka Tubic, Maja Stepanovic, and Milica Popovic.

imagesource: gazprom.com

Harrisons has advised Mondi Industrian Bags — a leading international producer of industrial paper bags — on a May 20, 2014 agreement to acquire Intercell’s industrial bags plant located in Sabac, Serbia.

Intercell currently operates a modern state-of-the art plant, with around 50 employees, which will become a regional production and service hub of Mondi’s industrial bags business in the Balkans. The acquisition is expected to strengthen Mondi’s level of quality and customer service in the region long term.

Listed in the JSE Limited and London Stock Exchange, Mondi sells about 4 billion bags per year to major industries including cement and building materials, chemicals, food, feed and seed. It employs around 24,000 people in production facilities across 30 countries. In 2013, Mondi had revenues of EUR 6.5 billion. The Group’s key operations are located in Central Europe, Russia, the Americas, and South Africa. 

Hauser and Partners (Austria) also advised Mondi on the transaction.

JPM Jankovic Popovic Mitic, Centar Inventiva, in collaboration with the Professional Orientation in Serbia project of the German Organization for International Cooperation and the Belgrade Youth Office, organized what the firm described as “a real encounter” for high school students on May 13th, 2014.

According to JPM, “such real encounters are an innovation in our educational system and are focused on direct encounters with the world of business in order to obtain a realistic picture of the desired occupation; they provide young people with an exclusive opportunity to learn about the real circumstances of the profession they might choose for their future.” 

JPM also explained that the event, which it hosted, provided the visiting high school students “the opportunity to obtain a realistic picture of the legal profession, to learn first hand what it means to be a lawyer, and to collect useful information that will help them to make the right choice.”

The Serbian JPM Jankovic Popovic Mitic law firm has advised the owners of Milos Klinika on its sale of 100% of its stake to the Blue Sea Capital Investment Fund. 

Milos Klinika is a leading ophthalmology clinic in Belgrade. Blue Sea Capital Investment is an independent, regionally-focused private equity investor investing in small and mid-sized companies. The Fund states that it is particularly interested in industries and companies with inherent pan-regional or export-oriented growth potential. 

According to JPM, “the agreement is subject to conditions and approvals customary for this type of transaction.” The JPM team advising the sellers was headed by Senior Partner Nenad Popovic and Partner Jelena Stankovic.

Zivkovic Samardzic has announced that it is representing Oiltanking in the company’s entrance into Serbia via a joint venture with Serbian Public Enterprise Transnafta Pancevo.

Oiltanking is  the world’s second-largest operator of tank terminals for petroleum products, liquid chemicals, and gases.

The firm reported that Oiltanking signed a February 20, 2014 Memorandum of Understanding on a strategic partnership with the Republic of Serbia providing for the establishment of a joint company with Serbian Public Enterprise Transnafta Pancevo, and a EUR 50 million agreement to construct and manage storage facilities for Serbian emergency stocks of oil and petroleum products. The Memorandum of Understanding was signed by Zorana Mihajlovic, the Serbian Minister of Energy, Development and Environmental Protection, who declared that Serbia’s current storage capacity of 716,000 cubic meters of oil should be expanded by  another 250,000 cubic meters by 2023.

Oiltanking, a subsidiary of Marquard & Bahls, owns and operates 75 tank terminals in 23 countries in Europe, North and South America, and in the Middle East, India, and Asia with a total capacity of 23.1 million cubic meters.

Zivkovic Samardzic Partners Branislav Zivkovic and Uros Dordevic lead the team representing Oiltanking. 

Prica & Partners has promoted two lawyers to Junior Partner.

The first, Tijana Lalic, joined the firm back in 2004, and focuses on Competition, Banking/Finance, and Dispute Resolution work. She also specializes in the pharmaceutical sector, where she advised clients on a broad spectrum of legal issues from corporate and competition to IP and general regulatory matters.

The second, Milos Vulic, joined the firm in 2007, and works within the firm’s Real Estate team and in commercial litigation, often involving bankruptcy, reorganization, and liquidation procedures. He also has particular experience in Energy law.

The BDK Law Firm has announced that Dragan Demirovic has joined the firm as Head of the BDK Tax Practice.

Dragan joins BDK from Deloitte, where he worked for four years as a Senior Tax Consultant in direct taxation. His professional experience also includes three years at Serbian Telekom as the head of the company’s internal affairs department.