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The Red law firm has advised the AS LHV Group on its initial public offering of up to 10,000 subordinated bonds at EUR 1,000 each. The new bonds are available for subscription from October 5-26, 2015, and LHV has applied for the listing of the bonds on the NASDAQ Tallinn Stock Exchange. LHV has the option to increase the offering size by another EUR 5 million to 15,000 bonds.

In addition to the offering of new bonds, LHV is listing 318 existing bonds with the nominal value of 50,000 euros each. The combined volume of the listing is therefore up to 30.9 million euros.

LHV is a leading Estonian financing group, and AS LHV Group is the parent company of LHV Bank and LHV Asset Management.

Red represented LHV in relation to the initial public offering and the listing.

Lawyers from the Czyzewscy Law Firm, acting pro bono, have successfully represented a child suffering from Dravet syndrome –  a rare genetic epileptic dysfunction of the brain — in a dispute with the Polish Minister of Health.

According to the Czyzewscy Law Firm, “apart from threats to life and health, [Dravet’s] disease is characterized by its weak response to any drug treatment. According to our client’s physician, using a specific drug would be likely to improve his health. Because the drug has a very high price and is not admissible in Poland, our client applied to the Minister of Health for its consent to import the drug and for its reimbursement. The Minister of Health gave consent to import the medication, but refused to reimburse it. According to the Minister of Health, refusal of reimbursement has been caused by formal reasons.”

The Provincial Administrative Court in Warsaw, in a ruling of August 20th, 2015, revoked the decision of the Minister of Health refusing reimbursement. In its decision, the Court announced that it found the arguments of Czyzewscy attorney Tomasz Sieminski compelling, and that “the decision of the Minister of Health was contrary to the principle of increasing the trust of citizens in the State bodies.” The Court ruled that the Minister of Health’s breach of that principle in this case lay in the fact that in similar cases the Minister of Health had reimbursed patients for the cost of a necessary treatment.  

The sentence is not yet legally binding.  

The Czyzewscy Law Firm team was led by Partner Katarzyna Czyzewska and attorney Tomasz Jan Sieminski, with support from trainee attorney-at-law Dominika Chrabanska. 

Balcioglu Selcuk Akman Keki (“BASEAK”) — the Turkish arm of Dentons — has hired former Clifford Chance Counsel Mufit Arapoglu and former Turkish Competition Authority expert Resit Gurpinar to its team in Istanbul. Arapoglu joins as Partner and will head the firm’s Capital Markets group, while Gurpinar joins as Of Counsel in the firm’s Competition group.

Arapoglu worked at White & Case from 2002 until January 2011, when he moved to Clifford Chance. He advises issuers and underwriters, local and international companies in equity and debt capital market transactions including equity public offerings, debt instruments offerings, private placements and sales to qualified investors, voluntary mandatory tender offers, sukuk issuances, and structured debt issuances. He also represents Turkish and international clients in various M&A transactions, particularly in the sale and purchase of companies in the banking, cement production, tobacco, media, and retail sectors. He graduated from Istanbul University in 2001, and received an LL.M. from Northwestern University in Chicago in 2014.

Gurpinar has worked at the Council of State as a judge and served in various administrative courts in senior positions. As a former member of the Turkish Competition Board, he served in the Turkish Competition Authority for six years and was appointed as the Deputy President of the Competition Board before joining BASEAK. Gurpinar has significant experience in dispute resolution and has held Trademark Attorney and Patent Attorney titles since 2005.

Office Managing Partner Barlas Balcioglu said: “We are delighted to have Mufit and Resit join our team. Their wealth of experience coupled with their impeccable reputation in capital markets and competition matters will complement and strengthen our existing practice and help us provide a broader range of legal services.”

Schoenherr (on matters of Austrian law) and Covington & Burling (as international counsel) have advised underwriters Leerink Partners LLC, RBC Capital Markets LLC, Needham & Company, and Wedbush PacGrow on Vienna-based Nabriva Therapeutics AG’s initial public offering in the United States and its listing on the NASDAQ Global Market.

Nabriva was advised by Wilmer Hale (as international counsel) and the Vienna office of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (on Austrian law). The transaction closed on September 30, 2015, with the IPO’s underwriters having fully exercised their over-allotment option relating to an additional 1,350,000 ADS. The transaction was structured such that 9,000,000 American Depositary Shares, each representing one-tenth of Nabriva’s underlying registered shares, were offered at a price of USD 10.25 per ADS in the United States and listed on the NASDAQ Global Market.  

This is the first sponsored Level III ADR programme by an Austrian issuer. 

Nabriva is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company engaged in the research and development of novel antibiotics to treat serious infections, with a focus on the pleuromutilin class of antibiotics. The company is a spin-off from Sandoz GmbH and is supported by leading international life-sciences investors including Vivo Capital, HBM Healthcare Investments, OrbiMed Healthcare Fund Management, Phase4 Partners, Omega Funds, Wellcome Trust, EcoR1 Capital, Novartis Venture Fund, and Boxer Capital.   

The Schoenherr team consisted of Partners Ursula Rath and Christian Herbst and Attorney Hutan Rahmani. The Covington & Burling team was led by Partners Eric Blanchard and Brian Rosenzweig.

The Freshfields team was led by Partner Thomas Zottl and Counsel Stephan Pachinger, and included Principal Associates Ludwig Hartenau and Christopher Hall, and Associates Lena Winkler, Noel Zamani, and Victoria Bazil.

Tark Grunte Sutkiene has advised Fuchs Petrolub SE on Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian law aspects of its SEK 690 million (approximately EUR 74 million) acquisition of Statoil Fuel & Retail Lubricants business from Couche-Tard Luxembourg S.A.R.L.

The transaction, which was signed on August 1, 2015, has just closed. The Swedish Hammarskiold & Co firm was global counsel of Fuchs Petrolub, with Sweden’s Delphi law firm providing legal advice to Couche-Tard Luxembourg. According to Delphi, “assumed net debt is expected to be around SEK 220 million” (approximately EUR 23.5 million).

SFR Lubricants is one of the leading lubricant providers in Scandinavia and also operates in Poland, Russia, and the Baltic States. In the 2014/2015 financial year, its business generated sales revenues of approximately EUR 140 million.

Fuchs Petrolub, headquartered in Germany, is the world’s leading independent supplier of lubricants, as it develops, produces, and distributes around 10,000 lubricants and related specialities across the world. With the acquisition, the Fuchs Group strengthens its presence in Scandinavia, expands its market position in Poland and Russia, and will now be present in the Baltic States.

Tark Grunte Sutkiene’s team carried out the due diligence review of the target’s Baltic operations and advised on the Baltic aspects of the transaction. The work of the Baltic team was coordinated by Partner Rolan Jankelevitsh and Senior Associate Allar Aru in Tallinn. The firm’s team in Latvia was lead by Partner Andra Rubene, and the Lithuanian team was led by Partner Gediminas Lisauskas.

The Hammarskiold & Co team consisted primarily of Managing Partner Erik Fahlgren, Partner Erik Lofwall, Senior Associate Peter Ahlstrom, and Associate Evelina Olsson.  

Delphi’s team was headed by Partner Niklas Eskilsson and included Partners Leif Ramberg and Anders Hulegardh, Senior Associate Siri Martensson, and Associate Anna Cronqvist.

Image Source: sfrcorp.com

Avellum Partners has advised Mohawk Industries on its successful application to the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine for for merger control clearance of its acquisition of the IVC Group. The estimated transaction value was USD 1.2 billion, in a combination of cash and equity.  

Mohawk Industries is the leading global flooring manufacturer that creates products to enhance residential and commercial spaces around the world. Mohawk’s vertically integrated manufacturing and distribution processes provide competitive advantages in the production of carpet, rugs, ceramic tile, laminate, wood, stone, and vinyl flooring. Mohawk’s widely-recognized brands include American Olean, Bigelow, Daltile, Durkan, Karastan, Lees, Marazzi, Kerama Marazzi, Mohawk, Pergo, Unilin, and Quick-Step. 

The IVC Group is a major manufacturer of sheet vinyl, luxury vinyl tile, and laminate, with operations in Europe and the United States and sales of approximately USD 700 million. IVC’s brands include Leoline, Flexitec, Itec and Moduleo. 

The Avellum Partners team was supervised by Managing Partner Mykola Stetsenko and led by Associate Iaroslav Medvediev, with input from Associate Andrii Gumenchuk.

Image Source: mohawkflooring.com

Noerr has advised Sonaca Aerospace Transilvania SRL — part of the Belgian group Sonaca SA — in obtaining RON 24.1 million (EUR 5.4 million) in state aid from Romanian authorities, meant to support the financing of a project dedicated to developing a new production plant in Romania.

Sonaca SA is an aerospace company headquartered in Belgium primarily focused on designing, producing, installing, and testing of aerospace structures and associated subsystems. 

In order to meet client demands, Sonaca set the goal of expanding its activities in Eastern Europe via a greenfield investment amounting to several million EUR in the aerospace sector, meant to establish the base for a production plant in the town of Moldovenesti in Cluj county, Romania.

The total value of the financed project is RON 52 million (EUR 11.8 million), an amount due to be invested between 2015 and 2017. The project consists in buildings, roads, equipment, and installations to be used in the production of equipment for Embraer and Airbus airplanes. 

This article was referred by our friends at LegalMarketing.ro. You can find the original full article here (Romanian).

Image Source: lanouvellegazette.be

Julian Ries — the former co-head of Gide Loyrette Nouel’s Kyiv office — is moving to Ukraine’s Integrites law firm, along with fellow Gide Partner Oleksiy Feliv, and the rest of the 7 lawyer team that moved from Beiten Burkhardt to Gide when the German firm closed its doors in Kyiv in December, 2013.

At Integrites, Ries will return to Germany, where he will head the firm’s newly-announced representative office in Munich, while Feliv and new Integrites Partner Oleg Zagnitko (who was a Senior Associate at Gide) will stay in Kyiv. According to Integrites, “the new team will be the basis for Integrites’ European Desk, led by Oleksiy Feliv, and will focus on supporting clients from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France and Italy.”

With this recent addition — which follows quickly upon recent news of the firm’s expansion in Moscow and new office in Guangzou, China (reported on by CEE Legal Matters on October 5, 2015) — Integrites increases in size to 210 employees, including 20 partners, serving clients in Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine and via representative offices in the UK, Germany, Netherlands, and China.

Partner Julian Ries believes that “strengthening of Integrites with the Munich office, as well as the European Desk, meets a growing demand among clients currently actively exploring Western European markets. The Munich office is primarily intended to accompany Integrites’ clients together with partner law firms in German-speaking countries.” In an exclusive conversation with CEE Legal Matters, Ries said that, “I didn’t really know Integrites over many of my years in Kyiv, but the more we spoke to them the more we learned that it was quite a unique firm in terms of business development, in terms of techniques, and approaches. It’s also a firm that’s rapidly expanding. It’s really a strong set-up. And they have a very interesting approach of how to approach companies and develop business with them. The more we spoke with each other the more we found similar principles, similar approaches; I was very impressed.”

Commenting on the merger, Feliv noted that, “Integrites’ strategy to become one of the strongest international law firms in Ukraine, and to take a leading position in the CIS market, as well bringing clients from Eastern European countries to the Western European markets, corresponds to the ambitions of the new team and our vision of the medium-term development of the company. We are confident that our international experience and work standards will strengthen Integrites, and open for our customers new possibilities of our support in countries where Integrites is already present».

Integrites Senior Partner Vyacheslav Korchev said: “Teaming up with the new partners and their team, we complement our litigation, banking, arbitration and government relations practices with first-class services in real estate and construction, corporate law and M&A, mediation and restructuring. In our endeavors to be a leader in the market – this is the first strategic decision. “

When contacted by CEE Legal Matters, Gide Partner Bertrand Barrier wished his former colleagues the best going forward, and said that his firm would make an additional announcement regarding its plans soon.

In the first part of our series of articles I offered an overview some general trends that every law firm can adopt. In the second part I will focus on some trends that are more suitable for medium sized and larger law firms.

Localization instead of globalization – or even personalization

More and more companies realize the local business and cultural specificities and change their business operation according to them. It’s rarely true that a cross-border campaign reaches every targeted person with the same effectiveness. There are two ways to change this – the first one is to adjust the global campaign according to the local tones and ways. The other solution is to create local campaigns, targeting only the population of a given continent, country, region, or other group. 

How can lawyers use this thinking? Global legal solutions are rare. There are fields of law or legal solutions that can be international – mostly cross-border M&A deals, typically conducted by Big Law Firms. Some fields have mixed characteristics, like Banking & Finance matters – including global trends, and local regulations alike. (surely, M&A deals have their own local regulatory aspects – but the focus is different). Litigation is typically a localized field, with strong connection to the legal framework of a country’s specifications (international dispute resolution is for another thing – a smaller part of litigation). Small and mid-sized law firms should decide on their focus, measure their strengths, and find their aim to provide something unique. They don’t have to be an expert in everything – but should be in some. 

The time of marketing technologists 

This logical step arises from the merger of the communications and sales field. Digital technology takes a huge part of latest business communication strategies. Like in many modern professions, PR and communications experts’ knowledge needs a constant update. Imagine a marketer’s knowledge from 2005 – without Facebook, YouTube, or Twitter. Mobile solutions, social media, online advertising, all request a special knowledge so marketers should be technologically aware and up-to-date. 

So do lawyers. We can’t say that a lawyer “knows online.” The online segments all pose a need for special knowledge, a unique touch which is learnable, but they all take some time to understand and master. Especially if they want to manage their online presence without an external expert, as ongoing management is necessary, it could be very time-consuming. 

Micro targeting

Micro targeting is a strategy when a business, a product, or a solution aims for a very small group or even a person himself. The sci-fi version is when in the movie “Minority Report” the billboards scan our retina to identify the relevant targeted advertisement to display. In the present, in order to use this method we must have an in-depth knowledge of the target audience. Another way of using micro targeting is to reach a larger group through these individuals – a common example is to find the opinion leaders of a certain group to deliver the message. Now, with digital advertising technologies, the usage of Facebook, Google, and LinkedIn, the personal targeting is not in a too far of a future anymore. 

Lawyers can profit from this targeting technique, even if they are specialized in a specific field of law. The client acquisition strategy can be highly precise, even down to one company or a person. We can determine who we want to meet to present our expertise. Online social networking tools are working at their finest for us. 

Mobile

80% of users check in to Facebook from mobile worldwide. In CEE the web page views from mobile devices are around 15-20%. The usage of smartphones increased to 40% (10% more than 2014) – still behind the 75 % penetration in the USA. Nonetheless, every business should be mobile-ready (ready for visitors or potential clients). 

Law firms are in a manageable situation if they have the base. Mobile friendly or responsive webpage is a must. The hardest part if they already have a webpage to convert it is sometimes harder than to build a new one. And another important element: since 2015 April 21 Google punishes non-mobile friendly pages and ranks them backwards in the search results. With 40% of searches coming from a mobile device, this is something that has to be taken seriously!

Mate Bende deals with legal communication for almost 10 years. As a qualified lawyer he started his career at Wolters Kluwer Hungary. Later he was the communications and business development manager of international law firms Gide and Schoenherr’s Hungarian office. In 2015 he started his own consultancy practice, Pro/Lawyer Consulting, focusing mainly on law firms.

Norton Rose Fulbright has advised Polish state-owned investment vehicle Polskie Inwestycje Rozwojowe S.A. (PIR) on the financing for the construction of a new gas-fired CHP plant in Torun, Poland.

On September 30, 2015 EDF Polska and a fund managed by PIR — Fundusz Inwestycji Infrastrukturalnych – Kapitalowy Fundusz Inwestycyjny Zamkniety Aktywow Niepublicznych (FIIK) (which is handling the capital for the Inwestycje Polskie program) — signed an investment agreement for the financing of the construction of a new gas-fired CHP plant.

FIIK will become part of the special purpose vehicle set up by EDF Polska to handle the investment. The total cost of construction is estimated to be PLN 550 million (approximately EUR 130 million), of which PLN 275 million (approximately EUR 65 million) will be covered by PIR from the Inwestycje Polskie fund. The new gas-fired CHP plant is expected to be commissioned in the first half of 2017. 250 people will be employed in the investment.

The Norton Rose Fulbright team advising on the transaction was led by Partner Rafal Hajduk, who was assisted by Of Counsels Artur Jonczyk and Adam Kozlowski and Senior Associate Grzegorz Filipowicz.

Editorial Note: DZP has announced that it advised EDF Polska on the transaction. The team’s lawyers included Partner Tomasz Darowski, Senior Associate Emilia Dabrowska, and Associate Michal Przychoda.

Image Source: edf.com