Category: Slovakia

Squire Sanders has announced that it won a significant international arbitration for the Slovak Republic against the Dutch company Achmea. The announcement came days before the firm’s formal transformation into Squire Patton Boggs. 

Achmea, a shareholder of the UNION health insurance company, commenced the arbitration against the Slovak Republic, claiming that the country had breached the Netherlands-Slovak Bilateral Investment Treaty’s encouragement and reciprocal protection of investments between the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic and the Kingdom of the Netherlands. According to Achmea, the Slovak Republic’s plans to establish a single health insurance company and related conduct was in breach of the Treaty. Achmea requested that the Tribunal order the Slovak Republic to refrain from expropriating Achmea’s private health insurance company, subject to a financial penalty. Further, Achmea claimed that its investment was damaged by the conduct of 17 state-owned hospitals during the negotiations of contracts on healthcare provision, as well as by the purported general instability of the regulatory environment in health insurance. 

The arbitral tribunal dismissed all of Achmea’s claims, after determining that the design and implementation of its public health policy is for the State alone to assess. Moreover, the tribunal stated that it is not empowered to intervene in the democratic process of a sovereign state and concluded that it had no jurisdiction over the dispute. 

It also ordered Achmea to pay EUR 1.011 million in legal costs to the Slovak Republic, as well as tribunal costs of over EUR 340,000. According to Squire Sanders, the Slovak Republic incurred EUR 1.348 million in costs during the arbitration. 

The Squire Sanders team was led by Partners Stephen Anway, George von Mehren, David Alexander, Rostislav Pekar, and Tatiana Prokopova. 

Allen & Overy has announced that Attila Csongrady will be re-joining the firm as Counsel in the firm’s CEE English law Banking and Finance practice.

Csongrady is qualified in both the UK and US, and he advises commercial and investment banks, private equity houses, sponsors and companies on a wide range of financing transactions. His practice focuses predominantly on the CEE and CIS regions.

Attila first joined Allen & Overy in 1999, and he spent 2000-2006 as an Associate in the firm’s London Leveraged Finance practice. In 2006, Attila relocated to Vienna where he set up and led the Vienna-based CEE/CIS English law Finance practice at Freshfields for six years. He spent a brief period at DLA Piper in Vienna as a Partner before returning to A&O.

Given the proximity of Vienna and Bratislava, Attila will be based in Allen & Overy’s Bratislava office, where he will work closely with other members of the CEE English law Banking/Finance practice, as well as with the Slovak Banking/Finance practice led by Partner Renatus Kollar.

A&O’s Warsaw-based Partner Dan Cocker, who heads the firm’s CEE English law Banking/Finance practice, commented: “Attila’s rejoining Allen & Overy continues our strategy of meeting client demand for top-level English law banking and finance advice across the CEE and SEE region, delivered by a specialist team based in the region – and in Attila’s case with a particular focus on clients based in Vienna.”

(imagesource derstandard.at)

bpv Braun Partners is providing legal advice on the construction of a multipurpose City Arena complex in Trnava, Slovakia.

The complex will be built on the site of an obsolete football stadium in the Western Slovakian city. The project consists of the new Anton Malatinsky Stadium, a 23,600 square meter shopping center, a 600-seat multiplex cinema, 1000 parking spots, and 2,670 square meters of office space.

Igor Augustinic, Partner and Head of bpv Braun Partners’ Bratislava office, explained that “the tenant mix and contracts concluded thus far show that this project has the potential to become one of the most successful regional shopping centre projects in Slovakia.”

Cechova & Partners announced that it has, in cooperation with the Arizona-based Snell & Wilmer law firm and the Israel-based S. Horowitz & Co. law firm — advised AFS Technologies on its acquisition of 100% of Visicom.

AFS Technologies is a provider of integrated business software solutions for Consumer Packaged Goods and Food & Beverage verticals. Visicom is a Slovakia-based provider of mobile software solutions for sales organizations involving resales, merchandising and direct store delivery, with subsidiaries in the United States and Israel. 

Cechova & Partners provided complex legal advice on the acquisition, including due diligence review and transaction structuring.

BPV Braun Partners has made Slovakian lawyer Igor Augustinic a Partner in the firm’s Bratislava office.

Augustinic focuses primarily on Banking/Finance, Real Estate, and Competition law. He also works on Corporate/M&A and the law of business associations. In his new role as Partner, he will also take part in managing the Bratislava office, where he has worked as Managing Associate since June 2012.  

“Appointing a local partner in the Bratislava branch is the logical next step that will allow us to strengthen our successful presence on the Slovak market,” commented Arthur Braun, Managing Partner of bpv Braun Partners, adding, “We are planning on adding more team members in the medium term and we are open to appointing experienced professionals as new partners in Prague and Bratislava.”

Augustinic joined bpv Braun Partners from CHSH in June, 2012, after four and a half years with the latter firm. Before CHSH he worked for 2 years with Gleiss Lutz. 

Havel, Holasek & Partners has promoted Pavel Nemecek to Partner in the firm’s Bratislava office.  

Nemecek, who becomes the firm’s 23rd partner, focuses on Corporate/M&A, Insolvency, and Insurance Law, particularly for German-speaking clients. In addition to his work in those matters, he will be co-responsible for management and other development in Banking, Finance, and Capital Markets.  He will also contribute to the management of the firm’s Bratislava office, where he has been working since 2012.  

Nemecek has worked at Havel, Holasek & Partners since 2008, after spending several years in the Prague office of Gleiss Lutz. He started his career at the insurance company Gerling at its headquarters in Cologne, Germany.