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Tark Grunte Sutkiene has advised Rudus on the sale of its concrete products business in Lagedi, Estonia — along with its “employees, production equipment, know-how, contracts, and property” — to Talot.

Going forward, according to a TGS statement, “Rudus will focus on the production and sale of ready-mixed concrete and granite gravel.”

Rudus was founded in 1994 based on the capital of the Finnish Oy Rudus company, to prepare and sell high-quality concrete and granite gravel to the Estonian construction sector. Since 1999, Rudus has been part of the CRH group, registered in Ireland. In 2013, the sales revenue of Rudus amounted to EUR 26.7 million, 57% of which came from the sale of concrete and concrete products.

Talot is an Estonia-based producer of construction materials. Its products include concrete products, prefabricated concrete elements, and ready-mixed concrete. In 2013, the sales revenue of Talot was EUR 10.7 million.

Toomas Vainola, a member of the Rudus management board, declared the board pleased with the deal: “The other party to the transaction is a well-known and trustworthy Estonian manufacturer of construction materials who will continue our decades-long work. We believe that all clients will benefit from the created synergies and experience.”

Rudus was advised by Partner Risto Vahimets, the head of TGS’s M&A practice, and Senior Associates Hannes Kuun and Tanel Kuun.

Avellum Partners has advised the Lafarge Group in connection with obtaining a merger control clearance from the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine for the sale of Lafarge UralCement, which operates a 1.1 million tons per year cement plant in Korkino, Russia, to Dyckerhoff. The plant was sold for a total value of EUR 104 million.

Lafarge Group is one of the world leaders in building materials, including cement, aggregates, concrete, and gypsum.

The Avellum Partners team was supervised by Partner Kostiantyn Likarchuk, guiding the efforts of Associates Mykyta Nota and Iaroslav Medvediev.

Likarchuk commented that: “We are proud to have acted as a legal advisor in obtaining a merger control clearance in Ukraine for this cross-border deal. Our antitrust team has once again proved its high professionalism, vast experience, and deep expertise in providing legal advice to international and local clients on all aspects of competition law in Ukraine. This deal will top up our long record of successful advice during the structuring process of international mergers and acquisitions.”

Schoenherr has invited Christoph Haid, already a partner in the firm’s EU & Competition department, to join the firm’s equity partnership.

Haid’s practice focuses on merger control and cartel proceedings as well as competition law advice throughout CEE, where he also helps guide Schoenherr competition lawyers in their respective jurisdictions in expanding their domestic business. In addition to his competition law practice, he serves as Managing Partner of Schoenherr’s Croatian and Slovenian offices. Haid will become an equity partner as of February 1, 2015, the start of the firm’s financial year.

“During his decade at Schoenherr, Christoph has distinguished himself through his exceptional drive, focus and skills,” said Franz Urlesberger, the head of Schoenherr’s EU & Competition practice. “He not only stands out as a particularly well-versed practitioner in merger control, cartel, and compliance matters, but has also distinguished himself on the basis of his managerial and entrepreneurial abilities, Christoph will continue to play a key role in securing Schoenherr’s standing as one of the premier competition law practices in our region.”

Haid completed his law studies at the University of Innsbruck in 2003 and obtained an LL.M. degree in EU Law in 2005 from the Danube University in Krems. In 2004, Haid joined Schoenherr, and was promoted to Partner in 2012 — then assumed managerial responsibilities for the firm’s offices in Ljubljana and Zagreb. He also spent six months with KWM SJ Berwin’s London office on secondment in 2008. He was admitted to the bar in Austria that same year.

Norton Rose Fulbright has advised the Export-Import Bank of Korea, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the International Finance Corporation, Standard Chartered Bank, and Banque Saudi Fransi on a USD 1 billion project financing of a 950 MW combined cycle natural gas-fired (CCGT) power station in Kirikkale, Turkey.  

tuACWA Power, an independent Saudi Arabian developer of power projects, will build the plant in Kirikkale together with Samsung C&T. The facility is expected to generate enough electricity to cover half the energy needs of a city the size of Ankara and to save more than 1.825 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year.  

Charles Whitney, the Project Finance Partner at Norton Rose Fulbright who led the team advising on the transaction, commented:  “This is a significant transaction on a number of different levels, particularly as the financing was put in place in the context of a challenging lending environment. It is also a credit to ACWA and the lenders for being constructive and putting together a structure that is both robust and accommodates the requirements of a liberalized power market. To our knowledge this is the first limited recourse, project financing of a gas fired IPP in Turkey since the introduction of the Electricity Market Law in 2001. We look forward to its continued success through construction and into operations.”  

In addition to Whitney, the Norton Rose Fulbright team included Project Finance Associates Sarah Jones, Stephen Clugston, and Nazli Okusluk. Of Counsel Robin Balmer advised on the Islamic documents, Partner Andrew Hart assisted on IFC matters, and unnamed lawyers from the firm’s Riyadh office advised on Saudi legal issues.

Sorainen has advised Apalon Technologies Ltd, a Belarus-based developer of iOS applications worldwide, on the sale of its mobile applications business to Mindspark Interactive Network, an operating business of NASDAQ-listed InterActive Corp. The financial terms of the deal, which closed on November 3, 2014, remain confidential.

Apalon Technologies Ltd is a leading provider of mobile applications to the Apple App Store, Google Play, and the Amazon Appstore. The company’s mobile applications business reaches 20 million active users monthly. The applications, many of which rank in the Apple App Store Top 5 in categories such as lifestyle and weather, were downloaded more than 100 million times last year.    

The Sorainen team was led by Partner Maksim Salahub, assisted by lawyers in the firm’s Corporate & M&A, Tax, Commercial Contracts, and Intellectual Property teams, as well as the Communications Media Technology Sector Group.

Image source: Bloomua / Shutterstock.com

JPM has supported Rohde & Schwarz-Osterreich, the Austrian branch of the international electronics group, which — in its capacity as the leader of a consortium with Kathrein-Werke and Comutel — has won the “Serbia Digital Switch Over – Procurement of goods, equipment and related services“ tender to coordinate the project of switching Serbia over from analog to digital TV and radio broadcasting.

Rohde & Schwarz specializes in the fields of electronic test equipment, broadcasting, radio monitoring and location, and radio communication.

JPM lawyers Milica Subotic and Ivan Milosevic led the team advising Rohde & Schwarz.

In addition, JPM reports that “in accordance with publicly available data,” the EBRD is considering a sovereign guaranteed loan of up to EUR 31 million to JP Emisiona Tehnika i Veze (ETV) for the purpose of financing the second phase of the switchover from analog to digital TV and radio broadcasting in Serbia. According to JPM, “the project is implemented by ETV jointly with the Ministry of Trade and Telecommunications and supported by other stakeholders such as RATEL, the telecom regulator.”

White & Case has advised the International Finance Corporation (IFC) on its acquisition of a 2.65 percent stake in Borsa Istanbul-listed Soda Sanayii.

Soda Sanayii, an affiliate of Turkey-based global glass and chemical producer Sisecam Group, is among the world’s ten largest soda producers with facilities in Turkey, Bulgaria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Italy. It is also the world’s largest producer of sodium bichromate and basic chromium sulphate.

IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused exclusively on the private sector in developing countries. It is owned by 184 member countries and works in more than 100 developing countries.

Istanbul-based White & Case partner Guniz Gokce, who co-led the team which advised IFC on its Soda Sanayii acquisition, said: “IFC’s investment in Soda Sanayii is a further demonstration of its long term commitment to Turkey, which has been an IFC member since 1956 and is IFC’s second largest client.”

The White & Case team was led by London-based Partner Alan Burke and Istanbul-based Partner Guniz Gokce, with support from London-based Associates Ozlem Dowling and Daniel Harrington-Greenwood, and Istanbul-based Dilara Erik, Derin Altan, and Ceylan Goknil. The Firm’s team worked in close cooperation with the IFC legal team, led by Senior Counsel Kaizer Karachiwala.

Burke said of the deal that: “We were very pleased to support our client IFC … with a cross-border team in London and Istanbul that combined English law and Turkish law capabilities to help ensure the deal was completed successfully.” 

BDK Advokati has announced that Senior Partner Vladimir Dasic, the Head of the firm’s M&A practice, was unanimously elected one of three Co-Chairs of SEE Legal by the Managing Partners of the firms in the alliance.

Dasic was elected at the SEE Legal Management Meeting held on November 22, 2014, in Belgrade. His mandate runs until December 31, 2016. The other Co-Chairs of SEE Legal are Borislav Boyanov, Managing Partner of Boyanov & Co. in Bulgaria (who is also an Honorary Chair of the Group), and Kristijan Polenak, Managing Partner of the Polenak Law Firm in the Republic of Macedonia.

SEE Legal is an organization of ten national law firms from 12 South-East European countries. The organization bills itself as “the largest provider of legal services throughout the SEE region.”

The role of the SEE Legal Co-Chairs entails group management and presentation to third parties.

Borislav Boyanov issued a welcome to the group’s new Co-Chair: “Kristijan Polenak and I would like to congratulate Vladimir for his election as Co-Chair of SEE Legal and wish him good luck and success in managing daily SEE Legal affairs.” 

CMS has announced that Dispute Resolution and Compliance Partner Olga Vorozhbyt has been elected as a new Board Member of the Ukrainian Arbitration Association in Kyiv.

According to a statement released by the firm, Vorozhbyt “has established herself as a qualified professional with 15 years of experience in dispute resolution.” The firm’s statement also stated that “the new appointment is a continuation of her success and we are confident that UAA will benefit by Olga’s knowledge and expertise.”  

Vorozhbyt has experience in arbitration proceedings both in Ukraine and abroad, as well as in defending clients’ interests in state courts with particular emphasis on cross-border litigation. She advises foreign and local clients on compliance-related matters including internal and external FCPA-driven investigations. Of her election she commented: “This appointment is an exceptional opportunity for me to become a contributing member of the UAA Board. I am delighted to join UAA team of professionals and look forward to working toward positive changes in Ukrainian Arbitration.” 

FBK has supported Severalmaz — one of the largest diamond producers in Russia — on a year-long project resulting in the issue of additional shares in the company.

According to the firm, in the first phase (reported on by CEE Legal Matters on July 5, 2014) it prepared a “package of documents for registration of securities and prospectus of shares that have been registered by the Bank of Russia.” In the second stage the firm provided legal support in the procedure of state registration of the securities issue. The Central Bank of the Russian Federation has now issued an official document “confirming the fact of registration.”

According to project manager Dmitry Kudrin: “Now the issue is completed. It was an interesting project. We will be happy to continue our cooperation.”