Category: Deals and Cases

BDK Advokati and Lakatos, Koves & Partners have advised Hungarian real estate investor Indotek Group on its EUR 267.6 million acquisition of 11 office buildings from Globe Trade Centre in Belgrade, Serbia. Zavisin Semiz & Partneri advised GTC on the Serbian legal aspects of the deal. The Budapest office of Dentons also reportedly advised the seller.

The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2021.

According to BDK Advokati, the GTC office portfolio purchased by Indotek consists of 122,175 square meters across 11 office buildings in Belgrade’s Green Heart, FortyOne, Belgrade Business Center, 19 Avenue, and GTC House business parks.

The GTC Group is a real estate investor and developer operating in Poland, Budapest, Bucharest, Belgrade, Zagreb, and Sofia.

BDK Advokati’s team consisted of Senior Partner Dragoljub Cibulic, Partner Milan Dakic, Counsel Dragoljub Sretenovic, Associates Djordje Zejak, Marija Gligorevic, Mladen Vujic, and Igor Matic, and Junior Associates Tijana Martinovic, Sanja Dedovic, David Vucinic, and Luka Radojevic.

LKT’s team was led by Partner Ivan Solyom, who was assisted by Associate Gyorgy Toth.

ZSP’s team included Partner Stojan Semiz and Lawyers Jasna Milosavljevic-Stepanovic, Jelisaveta Stanisic, and Nikola Sugaris.

Editor’s note: After this article was published, Dentons informed CEE Legal Matters that it had acted as the main legal advisor to GTC. The firm’s team included Partners Judit Kovari and Marcell Szonyi, Associate Rita Varnagy, and Junior Associate Marcell Kovari. Additionally, LKT also announced the closing of the transaction. The firm also confirmed that it had advised Indotek Group on financing for the transaction provided by OTP Bank, OTP Banka Srbija, and DSK Bank. The firm’s team, working on the transaction included Partners Ivan Solyom and Szabolcs Mestyan and Lawyer Gyorgy Toth.

Cobalt has advised Estonia’s Aktiva Finants on its acquisition of Viena Saskaita, the first and largest specialized payment platform in Lithuania, from ME Investicija.

The transaction remains contingent on regulatory approval.

Aktiva Finants, which operates in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, provides various loan-related services. The company’s clients include companies providing finance, telecommunications, and utility services.

UAB ME Investicija is an investment company with businesses including Girteka Logistics and commercial real estate developer SIRIN Development.

Cobalt’s team included Partner Elijus Burgis and Senior Associate Zygintas Voronavicius.

Cobalt did not reply to our inquiry on the matter.

Editor’s note: After this article was published, Sorainen announced that it had advised ME Investicija on the deal. The firm’s team included Partners Mantas Petkevicius and Augustas Klezys, Counsels Stasys Drazdauskas and Lina Ragainyte-Mezene, and Associates Laura Matuizaite, Goda Drasute, and Simona Vaicekauskaite.

Krehic & Partners in cooperation with Deloitte Legal has advised Slovenia’s Iskra on its acquisition of Croatia’s Elka Cables from Cotra d.o.o and Miljenko Hacek.

The transaction remains contingent on regulatory approval.

Elka, which was founded in Zagreb in 1927, produces power lines and different types of cables, including telecommunication and fiber optic cables, halogen-free and flame retardant marine cables, and cables for the petrochemical industry.

The Iskra Group, founded 75 years ago, has become the largest Slovenian company dealing with process automation, electrical distribution system, water purifiers, power line communication, rail and road transport automation, and software solutions in the field of energy and logistics.

The Krehic & Partners team was led by Partners Ivan Zornada and Tarja Krehic and included Attorney Valerija Cerovski and Associate Jelena Kraljevic.

DLK Legal has helped Mytaxi Polska sp. z o.o., which does business as Free Now, register with the Polish Financial Supervision Authority as an entity benefiting from the limited network exemption under the Polish Act on Payment Services. 

According to DLK Legal, “the registration covers the issuance of a payment instrument in form of the Free Now mobile application enabling users to make payments for the passenger transport services. Free Now is a leading urban mobility provider and part of the mobility joint venture between BMW and Daimler. Altogether Free Now’s activity covers 17 markets and 150 cities around the world and has 45 million users.”

DLK Legal’s team included Partner Krzysztof Korus, Attorney Bartosz Wyzykowski, and Trainee Aleksandra Ksiezak.

Deloitte Legal Lithuania and LeitnerLaw have advised Hoerbiger on the cross-border merger of Lithuanian entity Hoerbiger LT UAB into Austrian entity Hoerbiger Wien. 

According to Deloitte Legal, “Hoerbiger is a leading player in the fields of compression technology, drive technology and hydraulics.”

Deloitte Legal’s team included Local Partner Tomas Davidonis and Managing Associate Tomas Mieliauskas.

LeitnerLaw’s team included Attorneys Vedran Obradovic and Matthias Herzog.

Schoenherr has advised Ventus LLC and Sky Logistica on the acquisition of Skyport, a cargo operator based in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, from the Czechoslovak Group, a.s.. In a parallel transaction, Schoenherr also advised Elite Partners Capital on the acquisition of the Skyport RE cargo property company from the Czechoslovak Group. Dentons advised the Czechoslovak Group on the parallel deals.

Ventus is a private equity company operating in Atlanta, USA that focuses on investments in airport infrastructure.

Elite Partners Capital Pte. Ltd operates as an asset management company. The company serves clients and investors worldwide with assets under management of more than USD 1 billion.

The Czechoslovak Group, founded in 2014, is a holding company covering an industrial and technological group of companies operating in aerospace, the railway industry, the automotive industry, and the production of special vehicles and precision engineering. 

Schoenherr’s team included, in Prague, Partner Vladimir Cizek, Attorneys Jiri Marek, Michal Jendzelovsky, Rudolf Bicek, Claudia Bock, Eva Bajakova, Viktor Pakosta, Matej Sarapatka, Stanislav Bednar, Marie Gremillot, and Associates Libuse Docekalova and Jachym Bem; and in Slovakia, Attorneys Peter Devinsky, Jan Farbiak, and Tomas Silhanek, and Associate Alexandra Adamickova.

Dentons’ team included Prague-based Partners Jan Prochazka and Ladislav Storek, and Associates  Vojtech Novak, Kristyna Noskova, Petr Muller, Adam Prerovsky, and Jakub Nosek.

Glimstedt and Fort Legal have advised real estate company Vastint on the sale of office buildings in Vilnius and Riga to Eastnine for EUR 35.5 million. Ellex advised Eastnine.

Vastint Lithuania and Vastint Latvia belong to Interogo Holding AG. 

Glimstedt’s team in Lithuania included Partner Arturas Baksys, Senior Associates Jurgita Zakarauskiene, Petras Navardauskas, and Jolita Cesne, Associate Laura Tunkeviciute, and Expert Giedre Rimkunaite-Manke.

Fort Legal’s team in Latvia included Partner Janis Likops and Associates Vita Rancane and Laila Pudule.

Ellex’ team included Riga-based Partners Ivars Pommers and Inita Jurka, Senior Associate Zane Miglane, and Associate Ineta Kanepe.

Ellex has advised Eesti Energia on its entrance into a memorandum of understanding with Orsted for the development of a large-scale offshore wind farm and the movement towards delivering the first offshore wind farm in the Gulf of Riga.

According to Ellex, “as part of the MoU, Eesti Energia and Orsted intend to establish a joint venture for the development of offshore wind opportunities in the Baltic countries, including the Liivi offshore wind project (in the range of 1000 to 2000 MW) in the Gulf of Riga. In September 2020, the Latvian and Estonian governments signed a Memorandum of Understanding for a joint offshore wind farm.”

Ellex Raidla’s team in Estonia consisted of Partner Martin Kaerdi and Counsel Triin Frosch and Ellex Klavins’s team in Latvia consisted of Senior Partner Raimonds Slaidins and Senior Counsel Iveta Ceple.

The firm did not reply to our inquiry about the deal.

Sorainen has advised Data Delivery LLC, the Belarusian developer of a platform for managing the online status and business reputation of RocketData.io, in connection with share acquisitions and further investment in the company by mapping service 2GIS, which is part of the Sber group. DLA Piper Moscow and Aleinikov & Partners in Minsk advised 2GIS on the deal.

2GIS plans to increase its stake in Rocketdata to 88% in the second half of 2021, once the necessary regulatory approvals are received. The founders of Data Delivery – Darya Danilova, Fedor Zubrytski, Alexey Kudelka and Evgeni Ozhehkovski – will continue to develop the RocketData.io platform and upon completion of all stages of the deal will retain 12% of the company.

Data Delivery was established in 2017 and is currently a resident of Belarus’s Hi-Tech Park. In 2018 the company attracted investments from RBF Ventures, as well as from six business angels and the TUT.by media portal.

According to the company, the new round of investments received from 2GIS will be put into launching new products – in particular, in creating a unified personal account for launching advertising campaigns via geo-services and social networks using geo-targeting, analyses of local searches and other services.

Sorainen’s team was led by Senior Associate Viktoryia Mikhnevich and included Partner Maksim Salahub and Associate Aliaksei Vashkevich.

DLA Piper’s team was led by Partner Leo Batalov and included Legal Directors Andrei Sheetkin and Alexei Kolesnikov and Associates Alexandra Braterskaya, Konstantin Savryga, and Nino Galdav. 

Norton Rose Fulbright and Asters have advised a syndicate of banks on its provision of a PLN 1.5 billon loan to Polish, Russian, Romanian, Ukrainian, and German members of the Cersanit Group. Romania’s Ionescu si Sava reportedly also advised the syndicate. Clifford Chance advised Cersanit on the deal.

The banking syndicate consisted of Bank Polska Kasa Opieki S.A. as the agent, the security agent, and original lender, as well as mBank S.A., ING Bank Slaski S.A., Santander Bank Polska S.A., BNP Paribas Bank Polska S.A., and Powszechna Kasa Oszczednosci Bank Polski S.A. as original lenders.

Cersanit is a producer and distributor of goods used in finishing and fitting out bathrooms, such as ceramic tiles, sanitary ceramics, bathroom furniture, bathtubs, wall-mounting fixing frames, and fittings. The company operates in Poland and across Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia, and North Africa.

Norton Rose Fulbright’s team consisted of Warsaw-based Partner Grzegorz Dyczkowski, Counsel Jacek Smardzewski, Associate Karolina Majcher, and Paralegal Michal Rutkowski, as well as Frankfurt-based Partner Bernhard Fiedler and Associate Julia Tschickardt. 

Asters’ team included Partner Iryna Pokanay, Counsel Gabriel Aslanian, and Associates Inna Bondarenko and Viktoria Zagreba.

Clifford Chance’s team consisted of Warsaw-based Partner Andrzej Stosio, Senior Associate Kacper Bardan, and Associate Artur Gladysz, as well as Moscow-based Managing Partner Victoria Bortkevicha and Associate Veronika Orlova.