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Dentons has advised Skanska Property Poland on the sale of its Green Horizon office complex in Lodz to a fund managed by the Griffin-group — represented in the matter by Linklaters — for EUR 66 million.

Cushman & Wakefield also advised Skanska Property Poland on the transaction, while Colliers International provided commercial advice to Griffin. 

Opened in the spring of 2013, the two-building Green Horizon complex consists of approximately 33,000 square meters of Class A office space. It is almost entirely leased by companies including PKO Bank Polski, Medicover, and Infosys BPO Poland. Green Horizon now becomes part of the Griffin Real Estate portfolio. 

“The sale of Green Horizon illustrates the investment attractiveness of Lodz, which, until now, has been recognized by many investors as merely a second-choice city,” commented Krzysztof Wilczek, Regional Director at Skanska Property Poland. “In fact, Lodz saw the third biggest growth in employment in the business services sector in Poland over the last two years – 57%. This trend is likely to continue into the future. Furthermore, the city is undergoing a rapid development in terms of infrastructure and has the opportunity to become the city with the best transport links in Poland. Also because of that, Skanska is planning to develop next office investments here.”

Image source: skanska.pl

Avellum Partners has advised the Nadezhda Group, which operates in the liquefied petroleum and gas industry, on tax planning for the holding structure of the Group, as well as all legal and tax aspects of corporate restructuring and acquisition finance issues, aimed at obtaining finance from international finance institutions.  

According to an Avellum Partners’ statement, the transaction involved establishing a holding company in an unnamed European jurisdiction and establishing personal holding companies for the Group’s shareholders, “to ensure a tax efficient, transparent structure with enhanced legal protection of assets.” The firm also explained that, as one of the main goals of the project was to establish a corporate structure suitable for obtaining financing in international markets and from foreign institutions, “the restructuring included also discussion of the Group’s final structure with several [international finance institutions] and ensuring compliance with their internal policies.”

Nadezhda Group is a one of the largest liquefied gas and oil products distributors in Ukraine. The company also operates in EU and CIS markets, and employs about 1,000 people.  

Mykola Stetsenko, the Managing Partner of Avellum Partners, commented on the news: “We are pleased to see the successful completion of this interesting corporate restructuring, which involved a number of foreign jurisdictions and several legal advisors respectively. Avellum Partners took the leading role in the project, structured the transaction, developed an implementation plan, and managed all actions required for its successful completion. We provided legal advice to Nadezhda Group on corporate, tax, and competition issues related to the corporate restructuring in Ukraine and assisted the client to go through this difficult and complicated process with maximum comfort as to the safety of the process and full legal compliance.”  

Stetsenko supervised the Avellum Partners team working on the matter, which included Associate Vadim Medvedev and Associate Andriy Romanchuk.

DZP has announced that the appeal of its victory in the National Appeal Chamber on behalf of a Polish-Spanish consortium in a waste collection dispute has been dismissed by the Regional Court in Poznan, X Commercial Appeal Department.

According to DZP, the matter involved a public procurement procedure conducted by the Waste Management in the Poznan Agglomeration inter-municipal association. The firm reported that “in the procedure, the Contracting Authority selected in four agglomeration sectors the bid submitted by a consortium of FB Serwis — based in Warsaw — and Cespa Compania Espanola de Servicios Publicos Auxiliares, which is based in Barcelona. An appeal was filed against the selection of the Polish-Spanish consortium’s bid first with the National Appeal Chamber and then with the Regional Court.

DZP advised the consortium during preparation of the winning bid, during the appeal before the National Appeal Chamber, and in the proceedings in the Regional Court in Poznan. The firm’s lawyers working on the case included Partners Katarzyna Kuzma and Pawel Lewandowski, Senior Associates Karolina Szymczak and Maciej Orkusz, and Associate Micha? Wojciechowski.

Sorainen has advised Manuli Rubber Industries, an international group based in Italy and specializing in the design, production, and distribution of reinforced rubber for various industries, on its launch of a joint venture in Belarus with Belarusian Steel Works (BMZ) and the Legmash Plant, under the auspices of the Belarusian Industry Ministry.

The plant, located in Orsha (in the Vitebsk Oblast), officially opened on December 10, 2014, and will produce high-pressure hoses for agricultural machinery for sale both in Belarus and abroad. Sorainen reports that over EUR 16.5 million has been invested in the enterprise, and that the plant will have a yearly manufacturing capacity of about 7.3 million metres of high-pressure hoses.

The firm drafted and negotiated the investment agreement with the Republic of Belarus, produced a set of ancillary agreements ensuring the supply of raw materials and distribution of the products of the joint venture, incorporated the joint venture and shareholder agreements, and advised on tax, customs, and other matters. The Sorainen legal team was led by Partners Maksim Salahub and Alexey Anischenko, and included Senior Associates Tatsiana Shyshkarova and Maria Rodich and Associate Viktoryia Mikhnevich. 

Imagesource: manulirubber.com

Lidings has announced that it has been engaged to advise on a potential acquisition of property in Moscow by the European External Actions Service, represented by the Head of the Delegation of European Union to Russia.

Lidings reported that its appointment was confirmed in an official letter from the Head of EU Delegation to Russia Vygaudas Usackas to firm Partner Sergey Patrakeev.

According to a statement released by the firm, Patrakeev is enthusiastic about the mandate: “we are immensely proud to become the counsel of choice to the EU Delegation in Russia and consider this engagement as yet another sign of recognition of our expertise in the field.”

Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners Ukraine has successfully represented Johnsons Controls Ukraine, a part of the Johnson Controls Group, in a tax dispute initiated by the Ukrainian tax authorities over the company’s alleged failure to pay UAH 3 million in value-added tax in connection with its corporate reorganization.

The Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine ruled in favor of Johnsons Controls Ukraine and accepted the company’s position that the transfer of assets in the reorganization process was not properly part of its aggregate gross assets, according to article 3.2.8 of the Law of Ukraine “On The Value Added Tax,” which precludes accrual of tax liabilities for VAT in accordance with article 7.4.1 of the Act.

EPAP Ukraine’s team consisted of Senior Associates Oleksandr Maydanyk and Arsen Miliutin.

On January 14, 2014, Russia and Hungary signed an agreement calling for cooperation in peaceful nuclear energy production.

On December 9, the Hungarian “Development of MVM Paks-II” company and the Russian “NIAEP” company — part of Rosatom — signed three executive agreements relating to the construction of two nuclear power units with Russian VVER-1200 reactors. Signatories were Sandor Nagy, the General Director of “Development of MVM Paks-II” and Vladimir Savushkin, the Senior Vice President, and Director of the Moscow branch of “NIAEP.” Herbert Smith Freehills, OST Legal, and Lakatos Koves & Partners advised on the matter.

The first document is an EPC-contract (engineering, procurement, construction) for two new power units for the next 12 years. The second regulates the conditions of service, and the third involves arrangements for fuel. 

The power units will remain the property of the Hungarian state, and the total value of investments is not expected to exceed EUR 12.5 billion. 

According to an OST Legal press release, the “main role” in providing the legal advice on the matter was played by Constantine Kraezhevskykh and Alexei Tokmin of the in-house team at Rusatom Overseas, by Natalia Artamonova at NIAEP, OST Legal Managing Partner Vladimir Lipavsky, and Herbert Smith Freehills Partner Daniel Logofet.

Integrites has acted as legal advisor in trade financing for TopService, a large Russian company engaged in the import and wholesale of galvanic batteries for household and special purposes.

According to an Integrites statement, TopService was established in 1993, and has “more than 700 distribution points in different cities of Russia.” The firm also reported that “the project was implemented in order to support import of products by TopService in Russia.”

The firm’s advice was provided by Senior Partner Vyacheslav Korchev.

Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners has announced that it supported Sberbank on the successful December 17th completion of its inaugural securitization of mortgage assets.

According to a Egorov Puginsky statement, “this is an important  transaction for the Russia’s securitization market and an encouraging example of mortgage securitization for the banking sector.”

The firm reports that “the transaction provided for offering by an SPV (mortgage agent) of three tranches of bonds secured by a pledge over a mortgage pool: two senior tranches, where the issuer’s obligations shall be performed in the same priority ranking and additionally secured with the Agency for Housing Mortgage Lending’s guarantees, and a junior tranche, where the obligations shall be performed after those under the senior-tranche bond have been discharged.”

The senior-tranche bonds were offered by private subscription to Vnesheconombank, and the junior tranche was placed by private subscription to Sberbank of Russia OJSC, acting as the originating bank that partially undertook transaction-related risks.

The firm reports that the deal was made under the Vnesheconombank Program of Investments to Construction of Affordable Housing and Mortgaging, was a non-standard procedure for creation of the reserve funds, (as Sberbank of Russia’s credit facility is being treated as a special-purpose reserve), and was  a non-standard procedure for senior-tranche bonds offering (i.e., both exchange and off-exchange).

Legal support on the transaction was provided by Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners Partner and Practice Head Dmitriy Glazounov, supervising Senior Associate Oleg Ushakov and Associate Olga Zhuravleva.

“This inaugural transaction for Russia’s largest state-owned bank has become a landmark deal for the whole market,” said Glazounov. “Thanks to the top-level expertise of all the parties involved in this transaction and to the efficient cooperation between the Firm’s lawyers, the Agency for Housing Mortgage Lending and Sberbank Group’s subdivisions, we managed to ensure the timely completion of the transaction under the tough deadlines namely due to the need for amending the deal structure. As a result, even under the sanctions imposed on Sberbank, a transaction usually taking about half a year has been completed within 3 months of hard work.”

Christmas means different things, and is even celebrated on different days, in different countries.

In most countries of CEE, at least, it means special markets and finger foods, mulled wine and roasted chestnuts. It means church services and rituals, bells and choirs and voices lifted to the heavens. It means children shrieking as they open their presents, some of the smaller ones getting more pleasure out of the boxes and paper than the more costly gifts inside. It means feasts with family, fish, goose, or turkey, stuffed stomachs and contented sighs. It means special cookies and treats, laughter and delight, and it means joy, hope, a few days off work, and calm. It means peace.

We wish all of our readers — be they Christian or Muslim, Jewish or Hindu, Atheist or devout, and however they define themselves — some of that hope, some of that calm, some of that laughter, some of that family, some of that food, and some of that peace. Whether you’re celebrating this special season with family or with friends, at church or at home, and in your own country or some far-away place, we hope this holiday season brings those most special gifts of contentment and joy.

Merry Christmas, from CEE Legal Matters, to our friends all over the world.