CEE Legal Matters

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  • Dentons Advises on CEFC’s Acquisition of KMGI Majority Stake

    Dentons Advises on CEFC’s Acquisition of KMGI Majority Stake

    Dentons has advised CEFC Hainan International Holding Co. in its acquisition of a majority stake in KMG International. The seller was advised by Freshfields with Nestor Nestor Diculescu Kingston Petersen acting as local Romanian counsel.

    As a result of the deal, CEFC, a private energy, financial services, and investment company in China will take a 51% stake in KMGI, the former Rompetrol Group, which was purchased by the National Company of Kazakhstan KazMunayGas JSC for USD 2.7 billion in 2007 in what has been described as the biggest private transaction in Romanian history.

    Dentons Co-Chair of the Global Private Equity Group Rob Irving, the transaction team leader, commented on the deal: “With this and other recent investments, CEFC is becoming a showpiece for the increasing importance of Chinese investment in the region.”

    The Dentons team was led by Irving, supported by Budapest-based Partner Anita Horvath and Associates Tunde Gonczol, Orsolya Szabo, and Eszter Fodor, Bucharest-based Partners Claudiu Munteanu-Jipescu, Anda Todor and Senior Associate Andrei Orbesteanu, Beijing-based Partner Sarah Zeng and Senior Associate Susan Wang, and Milton Keynes-based Senior Associate Christopher Colclough (seconded to Budapest) and Associate Rukia Khatun.

    Freshfields and NNDKP did respond to inquiries on the matter.

    Editor’s note: After this article was published, Freshfields confirmed it advised KazMunayGas on the deal. The team was led by Partner Sebastian Lawson, with assistance from corporate Senior Associates Phil Morgan and Dmitry Kazhaev and corporate Associates Ana Mintskovskaya and Tom Calvert. Senior Associate Scott Cameron advised on the financing aspects of the deal. ACT advice was provided by Partner Thomas Wessely with Partner Giles Pratt and Associate Zofia Aszendorf advising on IP matters.

  • Ince & Co Announces Piraeus Partner Appointment

    Ince & Co Announces Piraeus Partner Appointment

    Ince & Co has announced the promotion of Ronan Le Du to Partner in the firm’s Piraeus office.

    Le Du joined Ince & Co in 2006 and specializes in ship finance and other non-contentious shipping matters. Ronan qualified as a solicitor in 2002 and is dual qualified in France and England. According to an Ince & Co., Le Du “represents many of the largest international and Greek lenders and financiers on loan and security documentation for syndicated and bilateral financing, pre-and post-delivery financing, as well as amendments to or restructuring of existing facilities. He has also spent time on secondment to BNP Paribas (Suisse) S.A., where he advised mainly on ship finance matters.  He also advises ship owners in relation to their finance arrangements, negotiation of shipbuilding contracts, sale & purchase of vessels (including seller’s credit agreements), shareholders agreements and regularly represents buyers, sellers and banks at closing meetings.”

    Antonis Lagadianos, Head of Ince & Co’s Piraeus office, commented:  “Ronan is a top-class lawyer and a key member of our transactional team. His promotion is well deserved and recognises his significant contribution over the years. Ronan’s appointment underscores our ongoing commitment to invest in our homegrown talent. It also demonstrates the progress that we are making in growing our transactional capability to complement our contentious offering to clients in our core sectors.”  

  • Redcliffe Partners and Clifford Chance Advise Lenders on Restructuring of Ukrlandfarming Loan

    Redcliffe Partners and Clifford Chance Advise Lenders on Restructuring of Ukrlandfarming Loan

    Redcliffe Partners has acted as Ukrainian counsel to Sberbank of Russia and Deutsche Bank on the restructuring of a USD 600 million syndicated loan provided to Ukrlandfarming, one of the largest agricultural holding companies in Eurasia. The restructuring involves amendments to the Facility Agreement and related financial documents, and covers several jurisdictions, including the UK. Clifford Chance advised on matters of English law.

    Redcliffe Partners describes the financing, which was provided to Ukrlandfarming in 2011, as one of the largest financings in Ukraine’s agri-sector, and describes the restructuring as “crucial to maintaining the business.” According to Redcliffe Partners, “the agreement with creditors was reached in very difficult market and economic conditions, which included the devaluation of the Ukrainian currency and losing the Syrian and Iraqi markets due to hostilities.”

    Redcliffe’s team included Managing Partner Olexiy Soshenko, Counsel Dmytro Orendarets, Associate Evgeniy Vazhynskiy, and Junior Associate Olesia Mykhailenko.

  • The Buzz from Lithuania: Interview with Irmantas Norkus of Cobalt

    Irmantas Norkus, the Managing Partner of Cobalt’s office in Lithuania, describes the new Code of Ethics approved by the General Meeting of Advocates of the Lithuanian Bar Association on April 15, 2016 as “a significant move forward.” The previous Code of Ethics was created in 2005, and the rapid growth and substantial changes in the market since then required that the Code be modernized. Changes affect the rules applicable to conflict of interests and the ability of firms to represent multiple clients in matters upon informed consent, among other things.

    Turning to changes in the legal market itself, Norkus refers to the recent decision by the Varul office in Lithuania to rebrand as part of Primus as part of the extended fall-out of Varul’s Estonian office deciding to leave the network in favor of Tark Grunte Sutkiene. In addition, he reports that the law firms associated with PWC, Deloitte, and Ernst & Young — and, to a lesser degree, KPMG — are increasingly promoting their legal competencies and capabilities in Lithuania in an effort to compete more effectively with the traditional law firms in Lithuania. At the moment the increased visibility seems to be related more to marketing and communications than to actual presence on deals/transactions of significance, but as the firm associated with PWC in particular has publicly announced its intention to be among the top 4-5 firms in the country within 5 years, Norkus is keeping a look out. In addition, the PWC-related firm recently successfully appealed the Bar Association’s refusal to allow it to use the PWC trademark in its official name, meaning it is now able to more prominently display the PWC brand in its marketing efforts.

    In terms of practices, Norkus reported that the Real Estate and Infrastructure practices are “really hot” at the moment, particularly related to three significant privatizations ongoing at the moment, including, most significantly, the government’s plan to offer three Lithuanian airports for operation by one concessionaire for the next 25 years. That concession should be announced soon, and at the moment a number of Lithuanian law firms — and at least five larger international firms — are representing potential concessionaires participating in the tender. Other privatizations of significance include the PPP project for a new National Stadium, and another PPP project for the Utena National Road.

    Other dynamic practices in Lithuania at the moment are those involving the Financial Services industry, which is seeing a great deal of consolidation and loan portfolio sales, and Data Protection, as companies try to prepare for the upcoming changes in applicable EU law.

    Editors’s Note: This report is part of our newly-expanded “The Buzz” feature, which provides regular coverage of the events, trends, and developments of significance in and across CEE’s legal markets from the perspectives of the senior lawyers who work within them.

  • Knoetzl Hires New Managing Partner

    Knoetzl Hires New Managing Partner

    Knoetzl, the dispute resolution firm launched in Vienna this January has hired Tim Pfister as its Managing Partner.

    Admitted to New York, Pfister was previously a Partner with Sullivan & Worcester, a firm that he joined in 2010. Prior to that, Pfister helped Patton Boggs (now Squire Patton Boggs) build up its corporate practice in New York. He was also a Partner at Dentons legacy firm Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP and Holland & Knight LLP, where he headed the New York Corporate Practice.

    Speaking about his new role, Pfister told CEE Legal Matters: “After more than 35 years of international finance and global corporate transactional practice based in New York, in which I engaged and worked as co-counsel, with local counsel in Austria and throughout the region, I was honored and energized by the opportunity to help this truly distinguished and select group of lawyers, whose focus on advocacy at the highest and most effective level will set new standards and obtain the best results for corporate and financial clients in the region. But, mostly, I am attracted to their unshakable dedication to having fun in doing so.” 

  • AstapovLawyers Merges with Baltic Business Group to Form Eterna Law

    AstapovLawyers Merges with Baltic Business Group to Form Eterna Law

    AstapovLawyers has announced its merger with Baltic Business Group, a European firm with offices in Germany and Latvia, which will simultaneously rebrand as “Eterna Law”. The merger became effective on May 16, 2016.

    According to a statement released by AstapovLawyers, “the combination and the resulting strengthening of the Group with the offices in Dusseldorf and Riga are to meet the expectations of businesses that are heavily considering the possibility of entering European markets.” The firm also stated that “the two law firms coming together under a common brand name was a strategic goal for the Group that always strives to expand its geographical presence and product range for the benefit of clients. This is a logical step on the way to creating a full-service law firm present in Europe and the CIS. The Group’s presence in the two key business countries of Europe will offer an opportunity for clients to obtain advice in these states directly and will allow for more efficient use of EU funds. Germany and Latvia are among most business friendly countries in the world standing at 15 and 22 in the aggregate ranking on the ease of doing business, respectively.”

    With the addition of AstapovLawyers’ offices, Eterna will have five offices — with one each in Kyiv, Almaty, Moscow, Dusseldorf, and Riga. Eterna also announced an intention to expand its European presence further, and reported that the opening of a Vienna office is “forthcoming.”

  • Tark Grunte Sutkiene and Fort Advise on Amendments to SEB Loan Underlying Laurus Properties’ Acquisition of Geneba

    Tark Grunte Sutkiene and Fort Advise on Amendments to SEB Loan Underlying Laurus Properties’ Acquisition of Geneba

    Tark Grunte Sutkiene has advised Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (SEB) on amendments to and new wording of the existing loan agreement for the loan amount of EUR 103,370,085 extended to Laurus Properties for its previously-reported acquisition of the commercial real estate portfolio from Geneba Properties N.V.  Fort’s Latvia office advised Laurus Properties on the deal.

    As reported by CEE Legal Matters on March 29, 2016, Raidla Ellex and Valiunas Ellex advised Laurus Properties on its acquisition of the 84,000 square meter Baltic commercial real estate portfolio from Geneba Properties, with COBALT advising Geneba. The portfolio consists of 42 commercial buildings, mostly consisting of the Baltic branches of SEB. 

    According to Tark Grunte Sutkiene, “within the scope of this transaction the task of Tark Grunte Sutkiene was to ensure establishment of changes to the securities in Latvia arising out of the loan amendments, which included the work with the loan and mortgage, commercial pledge, and financial collateral agreements and with the documents necessary for their registrations, as well as at the end of the transaction issued a legal opinion on the changes to the established securities.” The firm’s team consisted of Latvia-based Partner Inese Hazenfusa and Associate Ivita Samlaja, and Lithuania-based Senior Associate Ieva Dosinaite and Associate Donatas Sliora.

    The Fort team consisted of Partner Janis Likops and Senior Associate Ieva Balcere.

  • The Buzz from Turkey: Continued Political Fall-Out

    Regular readers of the CEE Legal Matters magazine are familiar with “The Buzz” — our regular news round-up from around CEE from the perspectives of senior partners on the ground in each jurisdiction. With this article we launch our expansion of that feature, which will now appear on the CEE Legal Matters website as well. This first article comes from a Partner at an international law firm in Istanbul who requested anonymity. We will refer to him as “The Source.”

    The big news in Turkey is the May 5, 2016 announcement that Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu would be resigning from his position. The Source observed that nobody’s sure what’s going to happen, who’s going to replace Davutoglu, or what the affect of the shake-up will be on foreign investors. The Source also said that has as yet been no reaction from his firm’s clients, but there seems to be consensus that this is “an unfortunate development”, and his firm’s position, at the moment, is “wait-and-see.”  

    The other major piece of news affecting the Turkish legal market, the Source reported, is fall-out of last week’s publication of an article in the Sabah on-line newspaper accusing YukselKarkinKucuk — the largest law firm in Turkey, which until December 2014 was associated with DLA Piper (as reported by CEE Legal Matters on November 27, 2014) — of being aligned with the followers of Muhammed Gulen, a Turkish preacher now living in self-imposed exile in the United States, who in 2013 had a major falling out with former friend President Recip Tayyip Erdogan. The schism between Gulen and Erdogan has worsened in recent years, and Gulen — and his followers — are now deeply unpopular with the current government. YKK’s association with Gulen’s supporters has not been a secret on the legal market, the Source reports, and people have been waiting to see if the government was going to make a big deal of it. That shoe has now dropped, he says, and the ramifications of the article appear to be significant. 

    On a happier note, Turkey’s new Data Protection Law (the “Law”), just now passed, a decade after the first draft was put forward and 35 years after Turkey first committed itself to enact a national data protection law under its Council of Europe obligation. The Law — passed ultimately as part of the country’s ongoing attempt to harmonize its laws with EU law to facilitate the country’s accession to the EU — was characterized by the Source as a “good thing.” Companies are finding themselves obliged to review their processes to ensure compliance with the provisions of the Law, which is creating work for firms across the market. The Source says that his firm’s data protection advisory team is working “flat out” at the moment, making the new Law “a gift from the government to the lawyers in the country.” The Law also creates a Data Protection Authority. “But,” the Source says, pointing to the increasing role of the Turkish government in such matters, “the question is: ‘Who’s going to run it?’” 

    Finally, the Source notes, a recent draft IP law — addressing a subject the Turkish government insists on calling “Industrial Property” instead of “Intellectual Property” — has a significant amount of “good stuff” in it as well, and it is expected to be passed soon as well.

    Imagesource: haberay.com.tr
  • Oppenheim Partner Receives Prestigious Award by Hungarian Bar Association

    Oppenheim Partner Receives Prestigious Award by Hungarian Bar Association

    Oppenheim has announced that Tamas Eless, the head of the firm’s dispute resolution practice and member of its management board, was honored with Hungary’s Karoly Eotvos award.

    According to Oppenheim, the award is the highest presented by the Budapest Bar Association. It is named after well-known writer and attorney Karoly Eotvos, who was instrumental in developing the rule of law in Hungary and acted as defense counsel in a number of high profile cases in the 19th century.

  • Primus Successful for Latvijas Pasts in Court

    Primus Successful for Latvijas Pasts in Court

    Primus has successfully represented Latvijas Pasts — the largest Latvian postal operator — in its challenge to a decision of the Procurement Monitoring Bureau to sanction access to Latvijas Pasts’ postal network for other postal operators without the need to enter into agreements with Latvijas Pasts and at tariffs specifically reserved for the end users of universal postal service.

    In its ruling the court found in favour of Latvijas Pasts, agreeing with its claim that access to its postal network is permissible only upon formal agreement and that the use of its postal services by other postal operators at tariffs designed for end users of the universal postal service is unfair and liable to impede unrestricted competition in postal sector. 

    According to Primus, “Latvijas Pasts is the largest postal operator functioning in environment of free competition. At the same time it is also a provider of universal postal service in Latvia. Universal postal service is the aggregate of postal services aimed at protecting interests of the end users. Universal postal service ensures the possibility for the end users to receive postal services throughout the territory of Latvia at tariffs set by the Public Utilities Commission.”