CEE Legal Matters

Category: News

  • Glimstedt Advises Apollo Group on Acquisition of Ozo Boulingas

    Glimstedt Advises Apollo Group on Acquisition of Ozo Boulingas

    Glimstedt has advised APL Restaurants, a member of Estonia’s Apollo Group, on its acquisition of Ozo Boulingas from the Akropolis Group.

    Ozo Boulingas operates bowling clubs in Akropolis shopping malls in the Lithuanian cities of Vilnius, Siauliai, and Klaipeda.

    Estonia’s Apollo Group is active in restaurants, entertainment, and cinemas, among others.

    The transaction is subject to merger clearance.

    Glimstedt’s team consisted of Partner Andrius Ivanauskas, Senior Associate Jurgita Zakarauskiene, Expert Giedre Rimkunaite-Manke, and Associate Domantas Gudonis.

  • Aleinikov & Partners and DLA Piper Advise on Alfa-Bank’s Acquisition of Home Credit Group’s Belarusian Subsidiary

    Aleinikov & Partners and DLA Piper Advise on Alfa-Bank’s Acquisition of Home Credit Group’s Belarusian Subsidiary

    Aleinikov & Partners, working jointly with the Moscow office of DLA Piper, has advised Alfa-Bank CJSC on its acquisition of Home Credit Group’s Belarusian subsidiary.

    The DLA Piper team was led by Corporate Partner Leo Batalov and included Senior Associate Andrei Sheetkin and Associate Tatiana Askarova.

  • Deloitte Legal Advises Currency Com Bel on Launch of First Regulated Tokenized Securities Exchange

    Deloitte Legal Advises Currency Com Bel on Launch of First Regulated Tokenized Securities Exchange

    Deloitte Legal has advised Currency Com Bel LLC on launching Currency.com, the world’s first regulated tokenized securities exchange.

    Deloitte Legal describes Currency.com as “the world’s first fully-functional trading platform for tokenized securities. It allows investors to trade, invest in, and benefit from real-world financial instruments by means of direct using of cryptocurrencies. More than 10,000 tokenized securities will be issued (starting with over 150). Each token will correspond to the base market value of shares, commodities, indices, and other traditional financial instruments. For example, those buying Apple.CX tokens will have the same economic costs and benefits of an Apple share.”

    According to Deloitte Legal, “the platform was authorized and regulated by the Hi-Tech Park as the first crypto-exchange in Belarus since the adoption of decree No. 8 – local cryptosphere regulations.”

    The Deloitte Legal team was headed by Moscow-based Senior Lawyer Vitaliy Kashin, working with a Deloitte Legal team in Belarus headed by Senior Lawyer Maksim Kovalyonok.

  • Filip Cabart and Juraj Steinecker Promoted to Partner at Havel & Partners

    Filip Cabart and Juraj Steinecker Promoted to Partner at Havel & Partners

    Czech lawyer Filip Cabart and Slovak lawyer Juraj Steinecker have been promoted to partner in the Prague and Bratislava offices of Havel & Partners respectively, bringing the firm’s partnership to 29.

    Cabart will co-manage the Havel & Partners Banking and Finance team. According to the firm, he “specializes in all types of financing, including syndicated loans, dealing with claim portfolios, and legal and regulatory aspects of providing financial services and collective investment, securities offerings and admission to trading on public markets. In recent years, he has been involved in numerous international and domestic transactions, providing legal advice to major international and domestic financial institutions and major companies.”

    Steinecker specializes in Competition law and M&A. The firm reports that “in the past, Juraj has represented clients from different sectors before competition authorities and courts in matters of anti-competitive agreements, and in merger notification matters,” and says that “he also advises on competitive aspects of mergers and acquisitions, and on compliance matters.”

    “We are aware that only top lawyers will keep the top-ranked law firm on top,” says Jaroslav Havel, Managing Partner of the firm. “That’s why within the firm we are developing a motivating environment with a clear vision of career growth that can be much faster than at our competitors. In terms of clients and work, the firm has always grown to such an extent that we could create other partner positions and offer them to our best and most talented colleagues. Some of them have achieved partnership faster than the average eight to ten years.” Speaking of the overall round of promotions, which included Counsels and Senior Lawyers as well, Havel commented that: “the second highest managerial position of counsel was then created in 2014, together with the economic and personnel development of the firm, when in some areas it was necessary to extend the competencies of the most experienced lawyers who typically do not aspire to the position of partner, or for whom the position of counsel is a pre-level to the position of partner, and also to support their academic growth, pedagogical or other professional activities.” Currently, seven of our colleagues are in the position of counsel.” Ultimately, he concluded, “I am glad that all the newly promoted lawyers have given the long-standing support to individual legal teams and that we are successfully pursuing the strategy of raising the next generation of top senior colleagues in the firm.”

  • Sorainen and Hogan Lovells Work on Rail Baltica, “Project of the Century”

    Sorainen and Hogan Lovells Work on Rail Baltica, “Project of the Century”

    A joint team from Sorainen and Hogan Lovells is advising RB Rail on drafting the underlying international treaties, infrastructure management agreements, and revisions to national laws that are needed for management of the Rail Baltica cross-border railway infrastructure.

    Sorainen claims that the greenfield European-width fast double-track Rail Baltica railway project is known as “the project of the century,” and that it “is the largest Baltic-region infrastructure project in the last 100 years and spans three European Union countries – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania ‒ and will eventually include two more – Poland and Finland, thus connecting Helsinki, Tallinn, Parnu, Riga, Panevezys, Kaunas, Vilnius, and Warsaw, and linking up with the wider European rail network.” Sorainen reports that the estimated cost of the Rail Baltica project is EUR 5.6 billion.

    The Hogan Lovells/Sorainen team is led by Hogan Lovells Partner Bruno Cantier and Sorainen Counsel Vitalija Tamaviciute (in Lithuania) and Partners Kaupo Lepasepp (in Estonia), and Lelde Laviņa (in Latvia), and it includes Hogan Lovells Counsel Charles Ford and Sorainen lawyer Svetlana Rudaja (Lithuania), Counsel Raivo Raudzeps (Latvia), Senior Associates Valts Nerets (Latvia) and Kaspar Endrikson (Estonia), and Legal Assistant Julija Valpetere (Latvia).

  • BDK Advokati, HRLE, and Bojanovic & Partners Advise on Industriaimport-Industriaimpex Acquisition of Stake in Farmalogist from Adriatic Fund, Subsequent Shareholders Agreement

    BDK Advokati, HRLE, and Bojanovic & Partners Advise on Industriaimport-Industriaimpex Acquisition of Stake in Farmalogist from Adriatic Fund, Subsequent Shareholders Agreement

    BDK Advokati has advised Montenegro’s Industriaimport-Industriaimpex AD on its acquisition of 49% of the registered capital of Serbian pharmaceutical wholesaler Farmalogist d.o.o. from private equity firm Adriatic Fund B.V., and in connection with the Shareholders’ Agreement entered into with the owners of the remaining 51% of the shares. HRLE advised Adriatic, while Bojanovic & Partners advised the owners of 51% of the shares in Farmalogist.

    The acquisition was completed on January 4, 2019 after merger clearances were obtained from the Montenegrin and Serbian competition authorities.

    BDK Advokati’s team was led by Partner Vladimir Dasic.

    The HRLE team was led by Managing Partner Jelena Hrle, assisted by Senior Associate Tanja Glisic.

    The Bojanovic & Partners team advising Farmalogist’s majority shareholders was led by Partner Vladimir Bojanovic and Senior Associate Petar Delic.

  • K&L Gates and Arzinger & Partners Advise CDRL on Acquisition of Majority Stake in Children’s Goods Chain in Belarus

    K&L Gates and Arzinger & Partners Advise CDRL on Acquisition of Majority Stake in Children’s Goods Chain in Belarus

    K&L Gates and Arzinger & Partners have advised CDRL S.A. on its December 27, 2018 acquisition of 90% of the shares of Belarus-registered Handlowo – Przemyslowa Grupa West Ost Union Sp. z o. o. o., which owns a chain of shops with children’s goods in Belarus operating under the brand Buslik, from the EBRD and four private individuals. Closing occured on January 1, 2019.

    According to K&L Gates, CDRL “is the owner of a chain of retail stores involved in the creation and maintenance of shops selling products under the Coccodrillo brand and other assortment offered by CDRL S.A. Currently, the sales network consists of almost 500 stores. There are 242 stores in Poland, with the remaining ones in Austria, the Czech Republic, Portugal, Slovakia, Romania, the Baltic States and Hungary. In 2018, the first store under the Coccodrillo brand name was opened in Germany. Outside the European Union, Coccodrillo brand stores can also be found in Saudi Arabia, Mongolia, Libya, Kazakhstan, and Brazil.”

    The K&L Gates team was supervised by Partner Michal Pawlowski and led by Associates Magdalena Trzepizur and Piotr Miller (who left the firm in October 2018) and included Counsels Rafal Wozniak and Lech Najbauer and Junior Associate Paulina Galewska.

    The Arzinger & Partners team in Belarus was headed by Partner Alexander Korsak and included Partner Dmitry Viltovsky and Associates Aleksey Mikhailov and Nikolay Gorelik.

  • Sayenko Kharenko, Redcliffe Partners, and TGS Baltic Provide Ukrainian and Latvian Advice on Greenyard Sale of of Horticulture Business to Straco

    Sayenko Kharenko, Redcliffe Partners, and TGS Baltic Provide Ukrainian and Latvian Advice on Greenyard Sale of of Horticulture Business to Straco

    Sayenko Kharenko, working with global counsel Allen & Overy, has provided Ukrainian advice to Greenyard N.V. on the EUR 120 million sale of 100% shares of its horticulture business to independent investment group Straco BVBA. Clifford Chance, working with Redcliffe Partners in Ukraine and TGS Baltic in Latvia, advised the buyers.

    According to Sayenko Kharenko, Straco acquired Greenyard’s food production assets, including 14 production facilities located throughout Europe and the CIS. Greenyard intends to use the proceeds from the transaction to secure the necessary means for the repayment of a EUR 150 million retail bond maturing in July 2019. 

    Greenyard’s CEO Hein Deprez commented, “we feel that this divestment is an important step towards a stronger Greenyard. Furthermore, the divestment of the Horticulture segment, in combination with the agreement with the lenders and ongoing deleveraging and improvement plans, will secure Greenyard the necessary means for the repayment of the retail bond in the summer of next year.”

    Straco is an independent Belgian family-owned investment group active in real estate and private equity with a long-term investment horizon operating in the Benelux, UK, France, Germany, and Poland.

    Greenyard is a global supplier of fresh, frozen, and prepared fruit and vegetables, flowers & plants. The Horticulture segment for growing media and mushroom substrates works in Belgium, France, Poland, and Ukraine and exports to more than 60 countries with 14 facilities in Europe and Russia.

    Sayenko Kharenko’s team was led by Partner Oleksandr Nikolaichyk and included Associates Ilhar Hakhramanov, Tymur Enkhbaiar, Mykola Lykhoglyad, and Tetiana Dyvak.

    The Redcliffe Partners team consisted of Senior Associate Anna Pushkaryova and included Associates Yulia Brusko and Maria Grechko and Junior Associates Bogdan Nykytiuk and Anton Rekun, all working under the general supervision of Partner Dmytro Fedoruk.

    Editor’s Note: After this article was published TGS Baltic informed CEE Legal Matters that it had worked alongside Clifford Chance in advising Straco on the acquisition in Latvia, and that the deal had been signed on September 24 and completed on December 18, 2018. The TGS Baltic team was led by Partner Andra Rubene and Associate Partner Nauris Grigals, both supported by Senior Associate Raivis Znotiņs, Associates Toms Tidemanis and Kaspars Treilibs, and Legal Assistants Zane Sklamina and Martins Galzons.

  • More Change in the Baltics: Theis Klauberg Launches Klauberg Baltics, While BNT Announces New Riga Firm

    More Change in the Baltics: Theis Klauberg Launches Klauberg Baltics, While BNT Announces New Riga Firm

    BNT Attorneys Riga Managing Partner Theis Klauberg has announced that he will be taking his team from that pan-Baltic firm on January 1, 2019, to launch an independent firm, Klauberg Baltics, leaving behind former senior associates and now partners Henning Jensen and Karlis Svikis to lead BNT Riga going forward. 

    Klauberg Baltics will have offices in Riga, Vilnius, and Tallinn.

    “The move away from BNT is the result of my decision to focus on the Baltic States, Klauberg told CEE Legal Matters, “which was incompatible with the BNT approach to cover several countries in CEE as well as Germany. We feel that being outside of an international network makes sense in the Baltic states. It is a unique situation in the Baltic states, because we don’t have international brands here and the Baltic states have always been blank spots for international law firms. That is one of the reasons why we decided to leave BNT, and start an independent law firm only in these three countries.”

    The new law firm will focus on the Baltics and target German-speaking clients. “We focus on the business between German speaking countries — Germany and Austria and Switzerland — and the three Baltic states,” Klauberg explains. “We are just geared towards that market.”  And Klauberg notes that Germany by far is the biggest investor in the Baltics. “The largest number of investments are coming from Germany,” he says, “and we expect that to become even more, because Germany and Austria are doing very well. We see our clients relocating production to the Baltic states and shifting work to the Baltic states and they are all very successful with that. We expect other companies to do the same.”

    The entire Klauberg Baltics team consists of 15 people in all three offices, which will start their operations in January 1, 2019. The Riga office will be managed by Klauberg, who is also CEO of Klauberg Baltics. The Tallinn office will be led by German Attorney Max Wood, who moves to Estonia from Latvia. Sigita Sriubaite, who was part of BNT Riga in 2003-2005, rejoins Klauberg as Managing Partner of the Vilnius office and as CFO of Klauberg Baltics.

    BNT Attorneys continues to operate as before in Vilnius and Tallin. In Riga, the office will provide legal services under the name BNT Attorneys in CEE/ Jensen & Svikis Legal. The Latvian team will also be supported by Frank Heemann, Managing Partner at the Lithuanian office of BNT.

    Heemann is optimistic about the new leadership in Riga, declaring: “I have a very positive look at working with Henning and Karlis. I worked with them for many years. Of course we would not have made this adjustment if we did not think it was not right thing to do — with two new partners’ own networks and new ideas we will be successful in the future.” He adds, “However, I am sad that Theis decided to leave, but of course we accepted his decision and wish him good luck.”

  • M&A, Cobalt, and Sorainen Advise on Baltic Media Holding Share Sale to Havas

    M&A, Cobalt, and Sorainen Advise on Baltic Media Holding Share Sale to Havas

    Motieka & Audzevicius has advised Lithuania’s Publicum Group and Cobalt has advised Estonia’s Idea Group on their joint sale of 51 percent of Baltic Media Holding OU to Havas Media Group. Sorainen advised the Havas Media Group on the acquisition.

    As a result of this transaction, Baltic Media Holding will use the Havas brand to provide public relations, media planning, advertising, digital marketing, and other communication services in the Baltic States. Baltic Media Holding is a controlling entity of operating companies, which were part of Publicum and Idea groups.

    The Idea Group is a group that unites 19 marketing communication agencies in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Havas is a communications group that is part of the Vivendi Group.

    The Motieka & Audzevisius team consisted of Partner Giedrius Kolesnikovas, Senior Associate Michail Parchimovic, Associate Rokas Jankus, and Junior Associate Laurynas Ramonas.

    Cobalt’s team was led by Partner Peeter Kutman and Associate Madis Reppo, supported by Senior Associate Tonu Kolts and Associate Mart Blondal.

    The pan-Baltic Sorainen team was led by Tallinn-based Partner Toomas Prangli, who was supported by Senior Associates Kai Vainola and Piret Lappert from Estonia, Senior Associate Janis Bite from Latvia, and Associate Inga Macijauskaite from Lithuania.