CEE Legal Matters

Category: News

  • RTPR, Walless, and PwC Legal Advise on GreenGroup and Abris Acquisition of Zalvaris

    Radu Taracila Padurari Retevoescu and Walless, working with Allen & Overy, have advised the GreenGroup on its acquisition of Zalvaris from Koncernas Consus. PwC Legal advised Consus on the deal.

    GreenGroup, specializing in recyclable waste management, recycling, and recovery of various types of waste, is an Abris Capital Partners subsidiary. Abris Capital Partners is a private equity fund with a focus on Central Europe.

    Zalvaris is the largest industrial waste management company in Lithuania. Koncernas Consus is an international group of companies engaged in the collection and processing of hazardous waste.

    Back in 2022, RTPR advised GreenGroup on its acquisition of Lithuanian recycling company Ecso (as reported by CEE Legal Matters on August 18, 2022).

    RTPR’s team included Managing Partner Costin Taracila, Senior Associates Vlad Druta and Ana Maria Barbu, and Junior Associate Filip Marinau.

    The Walless team included Partner Andrius Ivanauskas, Associate Partner Liucija Bitinaite, Senior Associate Giedre Cesiulyte-Megine, and Associate Migle Jeremiciute.

    PwC Legal’s team included Partner Rokas Bukauskas, Senior Associate Auguste Siutilaite, and Associate Inga Sorseva.

  • Koutalidis Advises National Bank of Greece on Austriacard Holdings Dual Listing

    The Koutalidis law firm has advised the National Bank of Greece on the dual listing of Austrian company Austriacard Holdings on the Athens Exchange and the Vienna Stock Exchange.

    According to the firm, the dual listing was part of Austriacard Holdings’ cross-border merger by absorption of its Greek-listed subsidiary Inform P Lykos Holdings.

    Austriacard Holdings is an Austrian group of IT companies focusing on hardware-embedded security, digital security, information management, and IoT. Inform P Lykos Holdings is a Greece-based company primarily engaged in the provision of products and services for secure document and information management.

    “The cross-border merger and listing have delivered a larger group with a listed parent top holding company and are expected to contribute to an improved group profile with an increased geographical footprint and product reach, broader cross-selling opportunities, and economies of scale,” Koutalidis informed.

    The Koutalidis team was led by Managing Partner Nikos Koritsas and Tax Partner George Naskaris and included Senior Associate Georgia Koutsoukou.

    Koutalidis did not respond to our inquiry on the matter.

  • Vernon David, Schoenherr, and Filip & Company Advise on Victoriabank Acquisition of BCR’s Chisinau Subsidiary

    Vernon David and Filip & Company have advised Moldova’s Victoriabank on its acquisition of the Chisinau subsidiary of Banca Comerciala Romana. Schoenherr advised the seller.

    Closing is expected in the second half of 2023, pending regulatory approval.

    Established in 1989, Victoriabank is a Moldovan commercial bank. Its main shareholders include Romania’s Banca Transilvania and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

    According to Schoenherr, BCR Chisinau has over 13,000 active clients, 110 employees, and four branches – two in Chisinau, one in Cahul, and one in Balti.

    Erste Group member BCR has one of the larger banking networks in Romania: 19 business centers, 17 mobile offices dedicated to companies, and 430 retail units across the country. 

    The Vernon David team was led by Chisinau-based Partners Roman Ivanov and Sergiu Bivol and included Senior Associate Nadejda Ciubotaru and Associates Adelina Braga and Mihai Silta.

    The Schoenherr team included Romania-based Partners Matei Florea and Madalina Neagu and Senior Attorney-at-Law Alexandra Pop, as well as Moldova-based Office Managing Partner Vladimir Iurkovski, Attorney-at-Law Andrian Guzun, and Associates Denis Lefter and Adriana Otean.

  • Noerr and CEE Attorneys Advise on Saint-Gobain Acquisition of Revco Hungary

    Noerr has advised Saint-Gobain on its acquisition of plasters, paints, and coatings producer Revco Hungary. CEE Attorneys advised the sellers.

    “The acquisition of Revco Hungary will help the Saint-Gobain Group to expand its indoor and outdoor systems and solutions in Hungary and the surrounding countries,” Noerr informed. “In addition, it will enrich its product range with a wide range of paints.”

    Saint-Gobain is a construction and other materials producer. Revco Hungary is a plasters and paints in buckets manufacturer that also produces primers and surface treatment materials, footing products, and glazes.

    The Noerr team was led by Hungary-based Counsel Akos Mates-Lanyi and Attorney-at-Law Eszter Hegedus and included Senior Counsel Peter Stauber and Junior Associate Virag Ablonczy, Romania-based Partner Rusandra Sandu, Senior Associate Alexandru Dan, and Lawyer Cristina Stamboli, as well as Slovakia-based Attorney-at-Law Adam Pichler.

    The CEE Attorneys team was led by Budapest-based Partner Aliz David and included Partner Tamas Felsmann and Senior Associate Erika Sukosd. 

  • CMS Advises Alpla on Joint Venture with Inden Pharma

    CMS has advised the Alpla Group on establishing a pharmaceutical packaging market joint venture with Spain’s Inden Pharma.

    “The Alpla Group and Inden Pharma have strengthened their presence in the pharmaceutical market by founding a joint venture,” CMS informed. “Alpla Pharma is contributing production sites in Greece and Poland to the cooperation and Inden Pharma two plants in Spain. Together they plan to set up a site in Germany and triple their production over the next five years.”

    The Alpla Group is an Austrian plastics manufacturer and plastics recycler, specializing in blow-molded bottles and caps, injection-molded parts, preforms, and tubes.

    The CMS team was led by Austria-based Partner Alexander Rakosi and included Partners Hans Lederer and Dieter Zandler, Lawyers Florian Mayer and Vanessa Horaceck, Associates Anna Hiegelsperger, Livia Landskron, and Ramona Mujanovic, Legal Assistants Rupert Riedl and Hannah Gierlinger, Legal Trainee Rebecca Herlitz, as well as Poland-based Partner Blazej Zagorski, Senior Associate Joanna Bialoskorska, Lawyer Aleksandra Dalecka, and teams from the firm’s Spanish and German offices.

    Editor’s Note: After this article was published, CEE Legal Matters learned that Herbert Smith Freehills Spain reportedly advised Inden Pharma.

  • Tomas Bures, Jan Varecha, and Eva Hromadkova Make Associate Partner at PRK Partners

    Prague-based Attorneys Tomas Bures and Jan Varecha and Bratislava-based Attorney Eva Hromadkova have been appointed as Associate Partners at PRK Partners.

    Bures, who specializes in banking and finance, corporate, and public procurement, has been with PRK Partners since 2004. He is a graduate of the Law Faculty of Charles University.

    Varecha, who has been with the firm since 2008, focuses on corporate law, commercial regulatory practice, trade obligations, due diligence, and insolvency law. He, too, is a graduate of the Law Faculty of Charles University.

    Hromadkova, who joined PRK Partners in 2011, focuses her practice on corporate law, commercial law, and banking and finance. She is a graduate of the Faculty of Law of Comenius University in Bratislava and holds an LLM degree from New York University.

  • Greenberg Traurig Advises Cromwell Property on Sale of Wisniowy Business Park

    Greenberg Traurig has advised the Cromwell Property Group Poland on its sale of the Wisniowy Business Park office complex in Warsaw to an unidentified Hungarian investor through a share deal. 

    According to the firm, the Wisniowy Business Park is an office complex featuring BREEAM green certification that offers over 40,000 square meters of leasable area.

    Cromwell is an Australian Stock Exchange-listed internally managed real estate investment trust. The company has security holders in 22 countries.

    The Greenberg Traurig team included Partner Maciej Jodkowski, Senior Associate Karol Lewandowski, Associate Alicja Kwiatkowska, and Paralegal Hanna Zaboklicka.

    Greenberg Traurig was unable to disclose further information on the deal.

  • CMS and E+H Advise on DPE Deutsche Private Equity Sale of VTU Group to Altor Fonds

    CMS has advised DPE Deutsche Private Equity on the sale of its stake in the VTU Group to winning bidder Altor Fonds. Milbank and E+H advised Altor Fonds.

    The transaction remains contingent on regulatory approval.

    According to CMS, “DPE is selling its stake in the VTU Group, a leading European provider of engineering solutions for the life science industry based in Graz, to Altor Funds. The Swedish private equity firm, which invests in mid-sized companies with the aim of creating value through growth initiatives and operational improvements, prevailed in a bidding process.”

    The CMS team included Austria-based Partners Alexander Rakosi, Jens Winter, and Dieter Zandler, Lawyers Florian Mayer, Marco Selenic, Mariella Kapoun, and Marlene Wimmer-Nistelberger, and Associates Christoph Birner, Shima Babanzadeh, Maximilian Uidl, and Thomas Aspalter; Romania-based Partner Rodica Manea and Associate Simona Strava; Poland-based Partner Blazej Zagorski and Senior Associate Magdalena Zmyslowska; with further team members in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and Belgium.

    The E+H team included Partners Philipp Schrader, Helmut Liebel, Jana Eichmeyer, and Laurenz Liedermann, Attorney at Law Steve Jeitler, and Associates Rene Renner, Titus Kahr, Florian Vidreis, and Adrian Walser.

  • Closing: Lagardere Acquisition of Costa Coffee Shops in Poland and Latvia Now Closed

    On March 8, 2023, Eversheds Sutherland announced that Lagardere’s acquisition of the Costa Coffee Group’s Polish and Latvian subsidiaries (reported by CEE Legal Matters on October 7, 2021) had closed.

    Eversheds Sutherland advised the Costa Coffee Group on the sale and reported that “the transaction included coffee shops located in Poland and located in Latvia, and involved a number of spin-offs and demergers of assets excluded from the transaction.”

    As originally reported, Moskwa Jarmul Haladyj i Partnerzy advised Lagardere Travel Retail on its acquisition of the companies operating coffee shops under the Costa Coffee brand in Poland and Latvia from Costa Coffee.

    Costa Coffee was founded in London by Italian brothers Sergio and Bruno Costa, in 1971. It now operates in 41 countries worldwide and has over 2,700 coffee shops in the UK and 1,100 in other countries.

    Lagardere Travel Retail manages 4,800 stores across three business lines – travel essentials, duty-free & fashion, and food service – specifically in airports and railroad stations in nearly forty countries.

    The Eversheds Sutherland team included Poland-based Partners Aleksandra Kunkiel-Krynska, Marta Gadomska-Golab, and Ewa Szlachetka, Counsels Grzegorz Barszcz and Adam Nierzwicki, Senior Associates Maciej Tuszynski, Dariusz Aziewicz, Pawel Lasota, Piotr Lada, and Jowita Prokop, as well as Latvia-based Senior Associate Dmitrijs Nemirovskis.

    The MJH team included Partners Pawel Moskwa, Jan Jarmul, and Lukasz Blazejczyk.

  • Vladimir Ivanco Re-Joins ​​White & Case as Counsel and Head of Slovak Desk

    Former Aldertree Legal Partner Vladimir Ivanco has joined the White & Case Prague office as a Counsel and Head of the Slovak Desk on March 1, 2023.

    Specializing in litigation, corporate and M&A, and real estate, Ivanco has been with White & Case since 2006, having first joined as an Associate, and being promoted to Local Partner in 2020. In 2022, when White & Case pulled out of Slovakia, Ivanco, together with the local team, continued to operate the Bratislava office as Aldertree Legal (as reported by CEE Legal Matters on March 8, 2022).

    “The arrival of Vladimir Ivanco is yet another sign of our long-term focus on further growth in the CEE region,” White & Case Prague office Executive Partner Vit Stehlik commented. “Vlado is an extremely knowledgeable lawyer and seasoned professional who has earned himself a stellar reputation in the legal community and commands the respect of his peers. We believe he is the perfect addition to our successful team.”

    “Returning to the top international law firm in the region as a Head of the Slovak Desk is a new challenge for me – one that I am very much looking forward to,” Ivanco added. “Both my colleagues and I myself stand to gain a lot from our renewed collaboration, though it is our clients who will feel the primary benefit.”