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The real estate team of Vavrovsky Heine Marth Rechtsanwalte has advised ERSTE Immobilien in the acquisition of property located in the Monte Laa area of Vienna from Strauss & Partner Development, the Austrian subsidiary of UBM Realitatenentwicklung Aktiengesellschaft.

According to the firm, 440 residential units and 98 underground parking spaces are planned for the property. The project — expected to include over 26,000 square meters of living area and cost approximately EUR 70 million — will be built by Osterreichisches Siedlungswerk as general contractor. It will be developed for ERSTE Immobilienfonds, one of the largest open real estate funds in Austria.  

The Vavrovsky Heine Marth Real Estate Team working on the matter was headed by Partner Christian Marth, who explained that: “I am very proud that we could support our long-term client ERSTE Immobilien KAG in this important deal. The project is part of the famous development area Monte Laa. Thanks to the excellent team work, we were able to very successfully close the deal despite the project’s complexity and tight schedule.”

Nestor Nestor Diculescu Kingston Petersen (NNDKP) has announced today that Valentin Voinescu was promoted to Partner in the Banking and Finance department of the firm. Within the same promotions round, 2 Tax Managers, Sorin Mociofan and Adina Vizoli were appointed to Tax Directors, 10 Senior Attorneys were promoted to Managing Associates, and 7 Lawyers to Senior Associates.

Voinescu focuses primarily on the financial sector. His main areas of expertise include advising financial institutions and corporations on a wide range of issues, including finance transactions, debt restructuring, and regulatory matters. Valentin is also an experienced trainer, offering regular lectures and seminars to banks and companies active on the domestic market.

Mociofan is the Head of the Timisoara Tax Practice. He has over has over 13 years of experience in taxation projects and over the past ten years has been assisting clients located in Transilvania/Banat region. A certified tax advisor, Sorin specializes in tax consulting and planning projects with focus on the direct and indirect taxation areas. Sorin holds an MBA from the University of Ottawa and the Academy of Economic Studies.

Vizoli has 12 years of experience in local and international taxation matters and is specialized in all VAT aspects: VAT projects launched with Romania’s accession to the European Union, as well as impact analyses on local and European VAT issues, solutions for fiscal streamlining, assistance in proceedings before Romanian tax authorities during administrative tax procedures and fiscal inspections. She is a Certified Tax Advisor.

According to the firm, “the promoted professionals had a significant contribution to the consolidation and increase in work volume of their practices and offices” and the list of appointments also included: 

• Dispute Resolution: Catalin Radbata, Daniela Gramaticescu, Marius Ezer, Valeriu Mina, Corina Iablonschi;
• Banking and Finance: Valentin Voinescu, Larisa ?ugui;
• Real Estate: Irina Dimitriu, Vlad Tanase, Ioana Grigoriu;
• Intellectual Property: Delia Belciu
• Capital Markets: Diana Ispas;
• Immigration: Alexandru Lupu;
• Employment: Delia Paceagiu;
• Corporate and Contracts: Delia Ropan;
• The appointments round included lawyers from the Timi?oara (Eva Forika, Delia Baroianu) and Cluj-Napoca (Cristina Bidiga) offices.

Manuela Nestor, one of NNDKP’s Co-Managing Partners stated: “There are many young lawyers whose great potential – professional, human, leadership – needs to be seen and cultivated to form the future key attorneys of the firm. And high chances are that they become the next core lawyers in the Romanian legal environment. The promoted colleagues have shown, time and time again, that they have the skills to encourage and inspire their fellow teammates in reaching their common objectives together – not only through their professional abilities, but also by their integrity, human values and credibility. We congratulate them and wish them to continue to succeed, motivating their colleagues and contributing to the training of future generations of lawyers, equally capable as themselves to face the challenges of the legal profession for the next 25 years.”

Following these promotions, NNDKP has 20 partners (18 lawyers and 2  tax advisors).

Lidings has announced that Sergey Kislov was appointed as Partner within its Dispute Resolution practice in the firm’s Moscow office. 

Kislov has been with the firm since December 2012, when he joined as a Counsel. Previously, he was a Senior Associate with Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners. 

The new partner specializes in bankruptcy and insolvency proceedings, as well as on advising clients on corporate conflict prevention, business restructuring and sales of distressed asset. According to the firm, his professional portfolio boasts over 150 successful cases in arbitrazh courts and courts of general jurisdiction.

Andrey Zelenin, the Head of Dispute Resolution at Lidings commented: “Sergey’s professional expertise becomes particularly invaluable today, during the period of active growth in the number of bankruptcy projects handled by the firm. Sergey has already made a significant contribution to the development of practice since he joined us – clients value his extensive practical experience and his hands-on, commercially-oriented approach to strategic legal defense structuring.”

He will become the third Partner in the Dispute Resolution practice, which the firm identified as one of its “key practice areas.”

Borenius’ Lithuanian office has announced that it supported Google in its establishment of its subsidiary, Google Lithuania UAB, in the country.

The registration of the local subsidiary was completed on March 12, 2015. The firm confirmed that the team assisting Google in the incorporation process was led by Senior Associate and Head of the Corporate and M&A Practice Jonas Kiauleikis, with Partner Daivis Svirinas in charge, but could not provide further comments on Google’s activities in Lithuania at this stage.

Image source: google.com

This Monday (March 16, 2015) morning, the Freshfields CEE/CIS Stronger Together Conference 2015 is kicking off at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Vienna. Around 100 people – including 35 Freshfields Partners, 60 Partners from other law firms, and several senior in-house counsel – are expected to attend the two day event.

Having spoken to Willibald Plesser, Co-Head of the CEE/CIS Region at Freshfields, several months ago about the “Stronger Together” project of the firm, we reached out to him to learn a bit about the conference.

Plesser explained that the “Stronger Together” project “has been moving forward at a global level, not in design/scope but in depth and maturity,” with such events already having taken place in Latin America, Africa and Asia Pacific. In the earlier interview, he explained: “What we focus on in our ‘Stronger Together’ program is both making sure that we connect all these local firms with us and that we meet regularly but also create channels to exchange know-how and business opportunities,” and the conference is expected to facilitate this to a great extent with the schedule dedicated to exchanging views, experience, and know-how on both internal matters such as client relationship management, winning work together, etc, and external with topics such as the CEE banking landscape, the China challenge, opportunities for arbitration in the context of regulatory reform, global investigations, etc and key sectors, all on the agenda according to Plesser.

The Freshfields partner explained that what he is most excited about, prior to the event kick-off, is the fact that practically all who were invited are attending. In most cases, two partners from each relationship firm were invited – usually the Managing Partner and another partner. “They are, in many ways, part of our wider team, and, while we do not have exclusive arrangements set up with the local firms present to allow for the flexibility needed to service our client base, I do think of our local colleagues as part of the ‘Freshfields family’ and it is great, based on the attendance level, to see they feel the same and are keen to further build this relationship.”

When asked what the key indicator for success will be when they wrap up the event, Plesser said: “If everybody in the room leaves convinced that 1+1=3, we will have achieved our mission with this event. Our model in the region is built on the premise that our global expertise combined with on the ground expertise and insight of our colleagues provides for excellent synergy and delivers the quality required by our clients. I hope all attendees will leave the conference convinced that we are ‘Stronger Together’ having experienced the power of our model first-hand.”

Image source: freshfields.com

Integrites has advised the MegaTrade Group on securing a USD 10 million commercial financing for 2014-2015.

According to the firm, with the financing, MegaTrade will build “the largest industrial garden in Ukraine which will be specialized in open ground plants cultivation ‘MegaPlant’, with an area of 200 hectares.”

Operating since 1996, MegaTrade is the largest Ukrainian specialist in IT-distribution and is one of the leading companies among the suppliers of equipment and integrated solutions in the field of information technology and communications to the Ukrainian market. It is a part of the “Octava Capital” group of companies, which also manages the assets of the following: Incom, Datagroup, and Compass FM.

The Integrites team was led by Senior Partner Vyacheslav Korchev.

Ecovis Bondar & Bondar has announced that it “proved in court that the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine is not authorized to issue air route operating permits.”

Representing Ukraine International Airlines, the firm challenged the legitimacy of the Order of the Ministry of Infrastructure No. 245 of 23.04.2013, which, according to the firm, approved the Order of issuance and cancellation of air route operating permits. The Kyiv District Administrative Court found in favor of UIA in a decision on March 3, 2015.

The Ecovis Bondar & Bondar team working on the case included Oleg Bondar, Managing Partner, and Julia Dmitrieva, Senior Associate.

In 2014, Ecovis Bondar & Bondar, represented the UIA on two other disputes, reported on by CEE Legal Matters on November 28, 2014. 

Image source: Artur Buibarov / Shutterstock.com

Editor’s Note: On April 24, 2015, Ecovis Bondar & Bondar announced that the Kyiv Administrative Court of Appeal had upheld the decision of the court of first instance reported above. Once again, Managing Partner Oleg Bondar and Senior Associate Julia Dmitrieva led the firm’s team.

Sorainen’s Latvian office has advised the Food Union group (which combines the two largest dairy processing companies in Latvia: Rigas piena kombinats and Valmieras piens), on its merger with Premia KPC in Lithuania and its capital companies in Latvia (Premia FFL) and Estonia (Premia TKH).

Food Union is the leading dairy and ice cream producer in Latvia, but as Premia KPC and related companies also produce and distribute ice cream (and frozen and refrigerated food), the transaction affects the market for ice cream production and distribution in all three Baltic States. Accordingly, the transaction is considered to be a merger of market participants, and sign-off from the Competition Council of Latvia was required. According to the firm, the Competition Council permitted the merger on February 12, 2015, concluding that the purchase of shares in Premia KPC by Food Union will not have an adverse effect on competition in Latvia. 

As a result of the merger, Food Union group becomes the leading ice cream producer in the Baltics. 

Sorainen’s Latviam Competition Practice group advised the Food Union group in this purchase transaction, prepared the notification for the merger of market participants, and provided legal support to the Food Union group on competition issues during the entire investigation by the Competition Council. The firm’s team was led by Partner Ieva Azanda. 

The same firm advised on the acquisition preceding the merger as well, assisting, Shiner Macost, owned by international food products entrepreneur Andrey Beskhmelnitskiy (who also owns Food Union), in its EUR 27 million acquisition of Premia’s ice cream and frozen products business in the Baltic States and Russia (reported on by CEE Legal Matters on October 7, 2014). 

Image source: premia.lt

Clifford Chance’s Prague and Frankfurt offices have advised Union Investment Real Estate on the acquisition of a majority stake in the Palladium shopping and office center in Prague’s main business district from a company managed by Hannover Leasing (which remains as a minority shareholder and asset manager of the center). Clifford Chance describes the transaction as “the most significant real estate acquisition ever in the Czech Republic and the largest single-asset deal recorded in Central Europe.” Freshfields and Wolf Theiss advised Hannover Leasing.

The transaction took the form of a share transfer of a 90% ownership interest in the Hannover Leasing portfolio company Palladium Praha s.r.o., with Hannover Leasing retaining a 10% interest. Union Investment acquired the stake for its open-ended real estate fund Unilmmo: Deutschland. The fund’s retail portfolio has total assets of around EUR 10 billion, and includes the ALEXA mall in Berlin, the Kropcke Centre in Hanover, Riem Arcades in Munich, and Manufaktura in Lodz.

Hannover Leasing originally bought the shopping center seven years ago for EUR 535 million. Although the specific price Union Investment paid Hannover was not disclosed, the transaction is based on a property value of approximately EUR 570 million, according to press releases from Hannover Leasing and Union Investment, and unconfirmed reports in December set the price at EUR 565 million, a price no other firm has ever paid for a single building in the Czech Republic.  The acquisition was supported by a loan facility with Bayern LB and Helaba as lenders, with Helaba acting as arranger and agent. 

The Palladium is centrally located on Namesti Republiky (Republic Square) in the Czech capital, and offers underground parking for up to 860 cars. It represents a unique retail and service offering in Prague’s historic center, and sensitively integrates protected historic buildings — former army barracks — from the Habsburg era. Opened in October 2007, the center offers a GFA of 115,000 square meters, with 41,000 square meters of prime retail over 5 floors and 18,000 square meters of office space. The shopping center is visited by an average of 45,000 people a day and over the course of 2014 was frequented by 15.8 million shoppers. 

Clifford Chance has been advising Union Investment on real estate transactions in the Czech Republic and Germany on an ongoing basis over the last few years, including most recently on the sale of its ABC-Forum residential and office building in Hamburg, the sale of its stake in the Technopark office building in Prague in 2014, the sale of the Trianon office center in Prague, the acquisition of the Melia hotel in Desseldorf in 2013, the acquisition of a retail property in Ulm, and the Sophienhof shopping center in Kiel in 2012.

The Clifford Chance team was led by Partners Emil Holub and Cornelia Thaler. On the Czech aspects of the transaction Holub was supported on real estate matters by Senior Associate Lubomir Bartal, Associates Aneta Sosnovcova and Tereza Simanovska, and Junior Associates Eliska Kadickova, Veronika Kinclova, Jakub Vesely, Eliska Chalupova, and Ondrej Svab, and on financing matters by Counsel Milos Felgr, Associate Jan Bilek, and Junior Associate Jaroslav Schwarz.

Clifford Chance’s German team further consisted of Partner Uwe Schimmelschmidt and Sven Zeller, and Counsels Anette Hofmann and Alexandra Uhl.

Working together with Freshfields Frankfurt, Wolf Theiss led on all Czech legal aspects of the deal. The Wolf Theiss team consisted of Libor Prokes and Pavel Srb, both of whom are based in Prague.

Wolf Theiss Prague Managing Partner Tomas Rychly commented: “We are very proud to have represented Hanover Leasing in this historic deal. The hard work of Wolf Theiss lawyers Libor Prokes and Pavel Srb really helped propel the matter to closing and was appreciated by all participants. We are also delighted to be direct observers of yet another sign of the healthy real estate market in the Czech Republic.” 

Image source: Aktron / Wikimedia Commons

Nestle Turkey appointed Ozge Atila as its Legal Affairs Manager this February.

Atila joined the Nestle Turkey Legal Department in 2007 and since then “has provided high-quality and business-relevant legal services to business units and other departments, as well as making significant contributions to some important compliance and commercial projects.” Ozge obtained her Law Degree from Istanbul University and her LLM Degree from Galatasaray University. Before joining to Nestle Turkey, she has worked for Superonline as its Legal Affairs Manager. Before that, she worked in private practice with Serap Zuvin Law Office and Gur&Inal Law Office. 

The position was previously held by Beste Aygun, who has been appointed as the company’s Senior Legal Counsel – Zone EMENA (Europe, Middle East, North Africa), effective end of January. Aygun first joined Nestle in 1998 and between 2004 and 2006 she worked for Nestec as its Legal Manager – Zone Asia, Oceania, Africa. Prior to Nestle, she worked for Shell Turkey.