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Eversheds has successfully represented Vitaly Smagin in an arbitration against Russian politician Ashot Egiazaryan, who was represented by Gibson Dunn & Crutcher.

A London-seated arbitral tribunal held that Egiazaryan, a former member of the Russian Duma and now an international fugitive, had taken Smagin’s minority share in the Europark mall in Moscow to secure a USD 100 million loan from Deutsche Bank, which he used to purchase an interest in a hotel that was being developed in central Moscow – now the Four Seasons.  

The tribunal ruled that Egiazaryan and Kalken Holdings, a company that he was alleged to control, must pay USD 84 million to Smagin for taking his share in the mall. They were also held liable for three quarters of the USD 3 million in legal fees, and of the USD 470,000 arbitration costs.  

The Eversheds team was led by Partners Stuart Dutson and James Hargrove with support from Legal Director Neil Newing, Senior Associate Judith Mulholland, and Associate Olga Osadchaya. Stuart Dutson commented:  “It is satisfying to have won this case for our client Vitaly Smagin, and that justice has been served in compensating the money he was rightfully owed.”

Linklaters has advised the Ozarow Group, a part of the CRH corporation, on the sale of 100% of shares in the Prefabet Group to H+H Polska, a member of Denmark’s H+H Group. H+H Polska was advised by Wardynski & Partners.

The deal closed following the February 5, 2015 approval of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection.

The transaction was led by Linklaters Associates Marcin Schulz and Jakub Wozniak. Issues related to concentration control were handled by Partner Malgorzata Szwaj, Head of Competition/Antitrust Practice, and Associate Mariusz Laszczyk.

Liniya Prava has supported IES Holding’s reorganization, which resulted in the consolidation of the group’s generating and service assets (Volzhskaya TGC), as well as its sales assets (EnergosbyT Plus). The reorganization involved a total of 25 group companies.

IES Holding is the largest Russian private company in the energy and heat supply sectors. The Holding owns more than 6% of the total power plant capacity in the country. The company, which was established in December 2002, supplies energy to 16 regions of Russia. The company’s clients include more than 14 million individuals and more than 160,000 entities.

Liniya Prava’s assisted with the development of a detailed reorganization plan, supported the corporate actions for each company involved, prepared the issuance-related documentation for 14 additional share issues, advised on the change of issuer for three bond issues, and advised on various aspects of corporate and securities market law.

Following the project, Karina Dashko, Corporate Director at IES and Member of the Board of Directors at OJSC Volzhskaya TGC, said: “Consolidation of generating and retail assets of IES Holding has been performed as part of a new business strategy. The key aim of the reorganization is to increase the company’s capitalization by centralizing functions, cutting management costs, and increasing operational performance, which meets the interests of both major and minor shareholders. The United Retail Company will serve as the sole supplier of the whole resource package for the public, including electricity, water and heat supply.”

According to Liniya Prava, the successful asset consolidation will allow IES Holding to save approximately 5 billion rubles in 2015. In particular, the company expects to see a reduction of loan interest rates due to borrowers of higher classes.

Ruslan Nagaybekov, Liniya Prava Partner, said of the project that: “Reorganization of IES Holding is nearly the largest project of this type in electricity and heat supply sector since the restructuring of RAO UES. We are happy to have been involved in the implementation of such a unique project. Consolidation of IES Holding’s generating and retail assets forms part of its new business strategy and shall result in improved financial performance of the Holding due to centralization of functions, reduction of management costs and enhancement of operating efficiency.”

Rojs, Peljhan, Prelesnik & partners has announced the promotion of Corporate/M&A lawyer Matic Novak to Partner.

Matic advises both corporates and banks primarily on mergers and acquisitions. He is also active in media law and advises on general corporate and commercial matters. 

Novak joined the then Colja, Rojs & Partners as a Junior Associate in 2008 after obtaining his LL.M. degree in the Netherlands and after working at the Nyenrode Business Universiteit. In 2006 he received his law degree from the University of Ljubljana (cum laude) and in 2008 obtained an LL.M. in International Business, Trade and Tax Law at the Utrecht University in the Netherlands. He was admitted to the Slovenian bar in 2013.

Sayenko Kharenko has acted as Ukrainian legal counsel to ING Bank N.V. (London Branch), the solicitation agent, in relation to solicitation by the First Ukrainian International Bank of consent from the note-holders of its outstanding USD 252.5 million Loan Participation Notes due 2014 issued by Standard Bank Plc to amend their terms and conditions.

The amendments included modification of the redemption schedule of the notes and extension of their maturity to 2018.

Sayenko Kharenko’s team was led by Partner Nazar Chernyavsky, and included Counsel Anton Korobeynikov and Associates Orest Matviychuk and Taras Shyb.

Image source: Ronald Wilfred Jansen / Shutterstock.com

Linklaters has advised Bonnier Business Polska, the publisher of  the Puls Biznesu daily (among others), on the acquisition of 100 percent of shares in the Bankier.pl Group, which is the owner of several popular specialized financial market and media portals, including bankier.pl, launched in 2000.

According to Conrad Wallenrodhe, a Swedish attorney and Linklaters Partner who has cooperated with the Bonnier group for many years: “Our client considers Poland as one of key markets on which its operates. The acquisition of the Bankier.pl Group is the next step to strengthen its presence in Poland and become a leader in the prestigious area of Internet media.”

The transaction was led by Warsaw-based Linklaters Associates Marcin Schulz and Jakub Wozniak. 

Aequo’s dispute resolution team has successfully represented Samsung Electronics in a dispute for for debt collection arising from supply contracts.

According to Aequo, the claim amounted to more than UAH 45 million (approximately EUR 1.5 million), which included both the cost of the supplied products and penalties.

Aequo reports that, “despite the numerous attempts of the defendant to delay the trial, the decision of the Lviv Regional Commercial Court, upheld by the Lviv Appellate Commercial Court, was to grant the claims of Samsung Electronics in full. Courts considered the claims reasonable and rejected the defendant’s arguments regarding alleged termination of the supply contract.”

The Aequo team included Partner and Head of Dispute Resolution Oleksandr Mamunya and Associate Yevgen Levitskyi.

Twin Design / Shutterstock.com

In January, 2015, the Vienna-based Haplogen GmbH pharmaceutical company sold Haplogen Genomics to the Cambridge-based Horizon Discovery Group for EUR 7.7 million in cash and Horizon shares, plus earn-out up to approximately EUR 5 million. Herbst Kinsky Rechtsanwalte in Vienna represented Haplogen on the transaction with a team led by Partner Phillip Dubsky, while Wolf Theiss advised Horizon Discovery through a team led by Partner Dieter Spranz.

We reached out to Dr. Georg Casari, the Chief Executive Officer of Haplogen, with some questions about the deal.

D.C.: Haplogen was always open between the options to build up a profitable company on our own or to partner or merge if it makes sense. We had been watching Horizon as a highly successful company in our field and our market with a complementary set of strengths. Horizon has been particularly successful in winning pharma and biotechnology companies as customers. At the same time, Horizon became aware of us when we published a high profile scientific publication about our knock-out cell collection. The final decision was prompted by both sides watching for more than a year and gaining confidence on the performance of the other side. The initial step was taken by Horizon.

D.C.: Members of the Haplogen team have already done similar transactions and had been extremely satisfied with the quality of support by Herbst Kinsky.

D.C.: In general we did negotiate the commercial terms and they did take the lead on legal terms. This worked very well for all sides. We did work together as a highly efficient team and I assume that this is also largely responsible for having this deal executed quite fast and smooth. Having an experienced counsel gives the confidence to move fast on legal matters.

D.C.: Negotiations with a publicly-traded company do impose an extra level of confidentiality and caution during the entire exploration and preparation of the deal. The transaction does need to make sure that all the regulations on timely announcement of information are followed. As the two parties already had a good understanding of each other’s requirements and goals it was relatively straight-forward to structure and negotiate the deal.

D.C.: Haplogen is a small team and our legal support is entirely served by external experts and consultants. Therefore, there I see no change in the next future, we will continue to work with the same legal team

The Vavrovsky Heine Marth law firm has advised and represented Immo Kapitalanlage in the acquisition of the Forum Schoenbrunn – Bauteil 1 office building from Credit Suisse Asset Management Immobilien.

The transaction for the 10,000 square meter property with a modern business complex with 15,400 square meters of rentable space was completed in January 2015 via an asset deal. Immo Kapitalanlage acquired the real estate as trustee for immofonds 1 real estate fund, which has investments in Austria and elsewhere in CEE.

The VHM real estate team was led by Partner Christian Marth, who said of the deal that: “We were delighted to win Immo Kapitalanlage AG as a new client last year and I am proud that we could already successfully assist and counsel our client in this important deal.” The team conducting the legal due diligence was led by Vavrovsky Heine Marth Partner Daniela Kager.

With its daily updates of moves, promotions, and client matters, the CEE Legal Matters website is already a critical source of information for lawyers working and living in Central and Eastern Europe. And after the February 1, 2015 introduction of the new Thought Leadership section, it’s even better.

CEE Legal Matters’ new Thought Leadership section — accessible by clicking here or on the menu bar on the CEE Legal Matters website — includes over 100 articles of sophisticated legal analysis from around the region, written by the lawyers and law firms who practice within it. These articles are searchable by country, practice area, or law firm, and provide a useful counterpart to the thousands of articles about news affecting the legal industry already on the site.

Dispute resolution lawyers can find a summary of developments affecting arbitration in the Czech Republic, written by Allen & Overy. Banking/Finance lawyers can learn about the process by which banks in Greece went from private ownership to public and then back to private, written by Dryllerakis & Associates. General Counsel wanting to invest in Poland can find a report on current IP law and summary of pressing issues in the field, written by experts at Baker & McKenzie. 

And much, much more. The Thought Leadership section already contains over 150 articles of insightful and timely legal analysis, and it’s growing all the time. 

Visit the section and explore. Click on a market, or a firm, or a subject — or click on one of the featured providers of Thought Leadership content, who have registered to ensure that their firm-created analysis is read by the potential and future clients who visit the CEE Legal Matters website each day to find firms possessing the experience, understanding, and awareness of each CEE market that can best serve their needs. 

You’ll see. CEE Legal Matters is already your go-to source for news about the lawyers of CEE. Now it’s the best possible source for CEE-focused legal analysis as well.  Why would you go anywhere else?

Because CEE Legal Matters.