Category: Uncategorized

ODI’s Slovenian office has recently amended its single-member company corporate structure. Managing Partner Uros Ilic, who founded the firm 10 years ago, has been joined by two new Equity partners.

Matjaz Jan is the regional head of the firm’s dispute resolution group. He became an attorney-at-law in 2008 and joined ODI in 2010. He has over 15 years of experience in corporate law, restructuring, insolvency, and dispute resolution.

Branko Ilic is the Slovenian head of the real estate group and the Croatian desk in ODI’s Slovenian office. He also became an attorney-at-law in 2008 and joined ODI in 2010. He has over 10 years of experience in real estate law and dispute resolution.

Going forward, ODI’s Slovenian office has also amended its corporate name to Law Firm Ilic & Partners.

According to the firm, “the addition of the two new Slovenian Equity Partners is a welcome development accompanying the firm’s rapid growth in the previous years. The new ownership structure will strengthen the firm’s foundations, enabling it to comfortably maintain its position as one of the leading law firms in the Adria region and providing support for achieving its goals on domestic and foreign markets.

ODI and Havel Holasek & Partners have advised Ceska Sporitelna and Ceskoslovenska obchodni banka on financing of the acquisition of Kofola’s acquisition of Radenska from Lasko.

ODI advised the club lenders on Slovenian law aspects of the EUR 69 million deal, with Havel, Holasek & Partners advising on Czech law aspects. White & Case and Ulcar & Partners advised the buyer Kofola, and independent attorney Stojan Zdolsek advised Lasko.

The Slovenian company Kofola has already acquired 93.98% of shares of Radenska and has published a takeover bid for the rest of the shares. The acquisition was funded through bank financing. 

The Kofola Group operates seven production plants in four markets in Central and Eastern Europe, employing around 2,000 people. Radenska is Slovenia’s largest mineral water producers and one of the oldest Slovenian brands, recognized also in other former Yugoslav republics, in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, and Italy. According to Kofola, it has acquired Radenska because mineral water was missing in its portfolio and Radenska will fill in the missing piece.

The ODI team advising the bank was led by Managing Partner Uros Ilic, assisted by Senior Associate Suzana Boncina Jamsek and Associate Ivo Grlica. The Havel, Holasek & Partners team was led by Partner Jan Topinka and assisted by Managing Associate Ivo Prusa. 

Sorainen Lithuania has advised AIG on opening a shared services center in Vilnius to engage in insurance support activities and other shared services functions. The center will service insurance policies, manage claims, and oversee benefit payouts.

According to Ross McConnell, the Vice President for AIG Global Shared Services, the deciding factors in choosing Vilnius were the high level of education, broad language skills, and demonstrated professionalism within the local employment market, along with the large numbers of foreign nationals studying in Lithuanian universities.  He noted that the very positive cooperation with the Ministry of Economics and its agency “Invest Lithuania” played a very important role in AIG’s final decision.

According to McConnell: “We decided in 2014 that Vilnius City was the most attractive location for our business service center covering Northern and Eastern Europe.  We see AIG’s entry into Lithuania of mutual benefit. By joining the service center sector in Lithuania, we will strengthen it even further, while for our business, this center becomes a convenient focal point for customer service to many of our markets.  We have solid plans to develop and expand this center, offering job opportunities to hundreds of talented people in the country.” 

The Sorainen team advised AIG — the international insurance organization serving customers in more than 130 countries — on corporate, regulatory, employment, tax, real estate, commercial, and other matters related to the launch of shared services functions in Lithuania. In addition, the firm represented AIG in negotiations with the Lithuanian Ministry of Economy over an investment agreement. Following the launch of the center, the firm continues to assist AIG on local law matters. 

The firm’s team was led by Partners Algirdas Peksys and Tomas Kontautas.

Raidla Lejins & Norcous (RLN) has advised Practica Capital, a group of venture capital companies managing the Practica Seed Capital and Practica Venture Capital venture capital funds, on its EUR 200,000 investment in NanoAvionika — the aerospace technologies company founded as a spin-off from Vilnius University in 2014.

NanoAvionika is, according to RLN, the first Lithuanian aerospace technologies startup and one of the first such startups in Eastern Europe to attract a venture capital investment. Its members belong to the successful LituanicaSAT-1 project. LituanicaSAT-1 is not just the first Lithuanian CubeSat but also one of the first two European CubeSats launched from the International Space Station. Currently, the company is dealing with the first commercial order from a foreign customer and together with Vilnius University is implementing the LituanicaSAT 3U-2 satellite project, which is part of the international QB50 mission. In August NanoAvionika will present its products and technologies at Small Satellite Conference in the USA.

“With Practica Capital financial backing and help, we are able to take another step in arranging our ideas and providing novel small-satellite-technology solutions to the global market,” said Vytenis Buzas, CEO and co-founder of NanoAvionika.

The Raidla Lejins & Norcous team drafted transaction documents, represented Practica Capital during negotiations, conducted due diligence, and advised on other transaction-related matters. The team was led by Associate Ruta Balkeviciute-Maceikiene.

Editorial Note: After this article was published, the Lithuanian office of Borenius reported that it advised NanoAvionika on the deal. The firm’s team was led by Partner Evaldas Valciukas and Senior Associate Simonas Skukauskas.

We are excited to announce a unique GC-focused conference organized and hosted by CEE Legal Matters.

The CEELM 2015 GC Summit’s website has just been launched and it offers a sneak peek into what we are preparing for delegates to the September 2-day conference to be held at the Sofitel Hotel in Budapest.  

The event will bring together over 150 General Counsel and Heads of Legal from across Central Eastern Europe and is proud to benefit from the input of the following GC Summit In-House Counsel Advisory Board:

• Andras Mohacsi: Commercial Compliance Counsel (Global) at British American Tobacco
• Attila Bocsak: Head Of Legal at Turk Telekom International
• Ioana Regenbogen: Legal Department Director at ING Bank
• Judith Gliniecki: General Counsel at CEE Equity Partners
• Pal Kara: Vice-President and Group General Counsel at the MOL Group
• Piotr Marucha: Head of Legal and Integrity at ABB Poland

To learn more about the conference, including the schedule and how to register to attend, please visit the event website regularly for updated information. 

Early bird discounts are available until June 1!

Vukasin Petkovic has become the new Head of Legal at the Bambi food manufacturing company in Serbia.

Bambi, which was founded in Pozarevac, Serbia, in 1967, is a member of the Danube Foods Group, which was recently acquired by Mid Europa Partners. (Originally published by CEE Legal Matters on February 3, 2015)

After graduating from the Faculty of Law at the University of Belgrade in 2007, Petkovic started his legal career with a year at Gide Loyrette Nouel, then another year at Prica & Partners. In 2011 he moved to Moravcevic Vojnovic & Partneri — the firm associated with Schoenherr in Serbia — where he spent the past four years.

At Bambi, Petkovic says, he will be “the member of management responsible for all legal matters (corporate, labour, contracts, trademarks, competition, litigation, real estate, etc.), organizing the work of internal legal advisors, coordination of external legal advisors, providing legal support to the management, general legal counseling about strategic decisions, etc.”

Amethyst Radiotherapy has confirmed today that the Accession Mezzanine Capital III fund — administered by Mezzanine Management — participated in the capital increase approved by Amethyst management at the end of April, thus becoming a shareholder in the company. Tuca Zbarcea & Asociatii advised on the capital deal.

The capital infusion will allow Amethyst to finance investment projects meant to launch new state of the art radiotherapy centers in Romania and abroad. The deal follows a credit facility offered by Accession Mezzanine Capital III to Amethyst in 2014 of EUR 21 million. The recent capital increase raised the total amount invested in Amethyst to approximately EUR 25 million. Amethyst aims to extend its network to 20 radiotherapy centers by 2020, totaling EUR 100 million in investments. 

The Tuca Zbarcea & Asociatii team advising on the matter was coordinated by Managing Associate Gabriela Anton. 

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

Clifford Chance has acted as international transaction counsel and DLA Piper Weiss-Tessbach acted as Austrian co-counsel, advising the underwriters in connection with the capital increase of UBM Realitatenentwicklung Aktiengesellschaft. Baader Bank and Erste Group acted as Joint Bookrunners and Joint Lead Managers. UBM was advised by Dorda.

UBM is an Austrian-headquartered real estate development group with a focus on three growth markets (Austria, Germany, and Poland) and three asset classes (residential, office, and hotel). The shares of UBM are traded on the Standard Market Continuous segment on the Vienna Stock Exchange. The capital increase consisted of two tranches with a total of 1,462,180 new shares placed to investors at a price of EUR 40 per share and total gross proceeds of EUR 58.5 million. It was structured with a pre-placement, a subscription rights offering, and a rump placement. 

The Clifford Chance team consisted of Frankfurt-based Partner George Hacket, Counsel Barbora Moring, Senior Associate Axel Wittmann, and Associate Sarah Steece.

Greenberg Traurig has added two well-known real estate teams to its Warsaw office, and the firm claims that, “the addition of 12 new attorneys … has created one of the largest and most diversified real estate practices in the region.”

Radomil Charzynski, formerly head of Allen & Overy’s real estate team in Warsaw, and Agnieszka Stankiewicz, formerly head of real estate at the Warsaw office of Norton Rose Fulbright, have joined Greenberg Traurig as equity partners (called “shareholders” by the firm), along with two local partners (Karol Brzoskowski from Allen & Overy and Magdalena Zyczkowska-Jozwiak from Norton Rose), and eight associates. Greenberg Traurig’s combined global real estate team in Poland now grows to a total of 30 lawyers, all led by Warsaw office Shareholder Marek Grodek, along with Stankiewicz and Charzynski. 

Charzynski graduated from the University of Gottingen in 1997, and is admitted to practice in both Germany and Poland. Before joining Allen & Overy he practiced at Zanthier Schulz & Partner in Berlin, and worked in-house at ECE Projectmanagement Polska. Stankiewicz was a Partner and Head of Norton Rose Fulbright’s Real Estate Practice from 2008 until this month. She was also a Partner at Chadbourne & Parke from 2004-2008, and spent the 8 years before that at Altheimer & Gray. She graduated from the University of Warsaw in 1997, and was admitted to the Warsaw Bar in 2001.

Greenberg Traurig Richard Rosenbaum took the opportunity to boast, saying, “in our view, Warsaw is the central business hub of the region, and Greenberg Traurig is already tier one in M&A, Private Equity, Capital Markets, and Tax, with great strength in banking, finance, and restructuring. The simultaneous addition of two leading real estate teams to this office is tremendously exciting, coming at a time when this asset class is becoming so important worldwide, in a firm whose goal is to be the leader in real estate globally as we are in the United States, in one of Europe’s most dynamic real estate markets, and in a firm that is unified globally as one business and one culture.” Rosenbaum added: “We are appreciative of Lejb Fogelman and Jaroslaw Grzesiak, our Warsaw leaders, for their strong leadership and support for our International Real Estate Practice. During a period of nearly 50 years, this practice has consistently delivered high quality, multidisciplinary legal services for all types of property investment, development, management, and real estate finance.”

Robert Ivanhoe, co-chair of the firm’s Global Real Estate Practice, spoke in similar terms, saying, “our practice is built upon our commitment to strategic growth, excellence in client service, and a desire to make a positive contribution to the legal profession and the communities in which we operate. Having a team that exemplifies these traits join our Warsaw office is a great honor for us.” 

The addition of Stankiewicz and Charzynski follows the firm’s June 2014 recruitment of veteran real estate Shareholder Eric Rosedale (reported by CEE Legal Matters on June 19, 2014), who joined the firm from Dentons as chair of International Real Estate with the specific mandate of developing the firm’s real estate practice outside of the United States. 

“This is an exciting development for our international real estate practice and a significant step in the growth and integration of our network and capabilities in strategic locations outside of the United States,” Rosedale said. 

The firm also announced that former Local Partner Bartosz Clemenz has been promoted to Shareholder. Clemens — who also specializes in real estate — joined Greenberg Traurig in 2010 from Salans (now Dentons) where he had been for 7 years. Before that he was head of the environmental law practice at Baker & McKenzie for three years, and an Associate at Hogan & Hartson for one. He graduated from Warsaw University in 1997, and obtained an LL.M. from the University of Houston Law Center in 1998. He is dual-qualified in Poland and the United States.

Greenberg Traurig opened its Warsaw office in 2012, taking over much of Debevoise’s Warsaw team when that firm imploded in 2012 in doing so. With these additions the office now grows to 80 lawyers.

Former Chancellor of Justice Indrek Teder has restored his membership in the Estonian Bar Association and joined the Glikman Alvin & Partnerid law firm.

Mariana Hagstrom, Managing Partner of Glikman Alvin & Partnerid, says Teder — who the firm describes as “one of the most recognized lawyers in Estonia” — will play mentor and “strategic advisor” roles in the firm. “Indrek Teder is one of the most experienced lawyers in Estonia,” Hagstrom said, “whose contribution to our country’s legal scenery is remarkable.”  

Indrek Teder first became a member of the Estonian Bar Association in 1983. He acted as Estonian Chancellor of Justice from 2008 until March 9 of this year. Before assuming that position he was a Partner in a previous iteration of the same firm, then known as Teder Glikman & Partnerid.