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Norton Rose has advised REINO Dywidenda FIZ fund on its acquisition of one the two buildings in the Kapelanka 42 complex in Krakow from Skanska, which was advised by Dentons.

The complex consists of two buildings, and offers over 30,000 square meters of modern class A office space. The buildings were completed in Q2 and Q3 of 2014 and their official opening is scheduled for November. The building that was sold is 11,700 square meters and is almost fully leased to companies such as Tesco, Apriso, and Sygnity. 

“Kapelanka 42, Skanska’s debut on the Krakow office market, is an important step for the company’s development in Poland,” said Mariusz Krzak, Regional Director at Skanska Property Poland. “We are glad that the purchaser of the first building in this project is a Polish fund managed by REINO Partners. The professional approach of our business partner enabled us to swiftly conduct the sale. This sales transaction is again proof that office buildings in the largest centers outside Warsaw are good investment products. The interest of the country’s capital may be a crucial factor for the development of the transaction market in Polish regional cities.”

REINO Dywidenda FIZ is the first Polish dividend real estate closed-end investment fund dedicated to Polish high net worth individuals (clients of private banking & wealth management). The exit-driven investment vehicle is set up and managed by REINO Partners, an independent and privately held real estate investment management company. 

“The transaction with Skanska is the success of REINO Partners proprietary fund, outlining new standards in investing in Polish commercial real estate,” claims Radoslaw Swiatkowski, President of the Management Board at REINO Partners.  “Buildings that generate stable income are a natural alternative for deposits, and when interest rates remain low, they should be a first choice for investors retrieving cash from deposits and treasury bonds. At the same time, the best buildings, with a minimal risk level, are unavailable for single investors. Funds such as REINO Dywidenda FIZ serve here as a solution. Due to its location, basic parameters and developer’s reputation, Skanska’s office building in Krakow was a good choice for the first investment target.”

In addition to Dentons, Skanska Property Poland was advised on the transaction by CBRE international consulting agency. Mike Atwell, Head of Capital Markets, CEE, at CBRE, said that: “The sales transaction of building B of Kapelanka 42 underlines the increasing liquidity of the office real estate market in regional cities and proves the growing investor’s interest in the best projects in Krakow. Furthermore, another successful and swiftly conducted transaction proves Skanska’s position as a leading office space developer in Poland.”

The loan agreement was concluded with Nordea Bank Polska.  

Allen & Overy, CHSH, Clifford Chance, Dorda, Eisenberger & Herzog, Schoenherr, and White & Case have advised various parties on the capital increase announced by Telekom Austria of up to EUR 1 billion, designed to prepare for the planned network expansion for the fourth generation of mobile LTE and other acquisitions.

The transaction was announced on November 7, 2014, and is expected to close on November 27. 

Schoenherr advised the America Movil group, a leading provider of telecommunications services in Latin America, in its participation in the increase. According to Schoenherr, “America Movil group intends to subscribe to the capital increase in proportion to its existing 59.7% shareholding in [Telekom Austria], and will invest EUR 604 million to acquire 132.2 million new shares at EUR 4.57 each, thereby covering the biggest part of the cash injection.” The Schoenherr team advising America Movil group in the capital increase is led by Partner Ursula Rath, and also includes Partner Christian Herbst, who previously advised America Movil on the shareholders’ agreement and the public takeover offer. They are supported by Associates Maximilian Lang and Sascha Schulz.

Fellow Telekom Austria core shareholder OIAG (the Republic of Austria’s state holding company) has stated that it also intends to exercise its subscription rights in full, investing EUR 287 million in order to maintain its 28.42% stake. Cerha Hempel Spiegelfeld Hlawati’s advice to OIAG was provided by Partners Edith Hlawati and Volker Glas and Associate Christian Aichinger. 

In April 2014, America Movil and OIAG — the two core shareholders in Telekom Austria — entered into a shareholders’ agreement that also included their joint support of a capital increase in Telekom Austria of up to EUR 1 billion. 

The subscription period for Telekom Austria’s rights offering commenced on November 10, 2014, and is expected to end on November 24, 2014. Both America Movil group and OIAG have committed themselves to a lock-up period ending six months after the first day of trading of the new shares on the Vienna Stock Exchange, which is expected to occur on November 27.  

Telekom Austria is advised by Partner Peter Winkler and Associates Gregor Petric and John Well of Eisenberger & Herzog on matters of Austrian law, and internationally by Partners Gernot Wagner, Benedict Gillessen, and Rebecca Emory, and Associates Antony Serban and Britt Remmers of White & Case. Because Wagner moved to White & Case from Allen & Overy in the course of the transaction, some assistance was provided by A&O as well, primarily by Partner Jack Heinberg and Associates Susanne Lenz, Oliver Reimers, John Hibbard, and Brian Schultz. Telekom Austria’s Head of Legal is Marie Louise Gregory. 

Partner Christoph Brogyanyi led the team at Dorda, which — along with Clifford Chance (in the persons of Partners George Hacket and Barbora Moring and Associates Axel Wittmann and Peter Wlaschek) — served as counsel to the joint bookrunners Erste Group Bank, Citigroup Global Markets, Deutsche Bank, Raiffeisen Centrobank and UniCredit Bank Austria.

The KYB Law Firm in Istanbul has been selected by the Borsa Istanbul (formerly known as the Istanbul Stock Exchange) to serve as legal advisor and “Borsa Istanbul Private Market Solution Partner.”

In a statement released by the firm, it claims that it has been selected “to act in collaboration with Borsa Istanbul on the establishment of a private market connecting entrepreneurs and investors for the purposes of finance and investment needs.”

The Borsa Istanbul is the sole exchange entity of Turkey. It combines the former Istanbul Stock Exchange (IMKB), the Istanbul Gold Exchange (IAB), and the Derivatives Exchange of Turkey under one roof. It was incorporated with a founding capital of YTL 423,234,000 (approximately USD 240 million) on April 3, 2013, and began operating on April 5, 2013. The shareholders of Borsa Istanbul are: the Government of Turkey (49%), the IMKB (41%), VOB (5%), IMKB members (4%), IMKB brokers (1%), and IAB members (0.3%). 

The KLC Law Firm has advised Loyalward, a member of Minoan Group, at a hearing before the Greek Central Council for Public Properties Development, which approved the draft Presidential Decree for the Zoning Plan of the “Itanos Gaia” project.

Itanos Gaia involves the development of a 25 thousand square meter resort in Cavo Sidero, Crete. Itanos Gaia reportedly involves the projected development of five luxury hotels with a capacity of 1,936 beds in the northeastern tip of Crete, on the Cape Sidero peninsula. The resort will also includes an 18-hole golf course, world-class spa, sports facilities, and desalination and wastewater treatment plants. 

The Minoan Group is an AIM-listed Travel and Leisure company with its headquarters in Glasgow. The company owns and operates a number of travel agencies across many aspects of the worldwide travel business. According to Christopher Egleton, Minoan Chairman: “This is one of the most important days in the history of Minoan as we near the successful completion of a long journey. After its review by the Greek Council of State, the issuance of the Presidential Decree is expected in the near future. At this point, for the first time, there will be a secure environment in which the Project can be brought to fruition in order to maximize value to shareholders.”

KLC Senior Associate Vasiliki Christou led the firm’s team on the matter.

On November 14 Morgan Lewis voted to admit 227 partners from Bingham McCutcheon into the firm’s global partnership.

The firm will now consist of almost 2000 lawyers in 28 offices around the world (including Moscow, its only CEE office) — making it one one of the largest firms in the world. The new partners are expected to join Morgan Lewis before the end of November 2014.

Morgan Lewis was founded in Philadelphia in 1873, and was, before the merger, the United States’ 12th-largest law firm.

Bingham McCutchen traces its history back to 1891, and its final form was the result of a 2002 merger of Boston-based Bingham, Dana & Gould and the Californian McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enersen firm. The firm had begun to struggle in recent years, with more than 50 partners leaving the firm since last year (including 19, most in the highly profitable London office, just in September), and lay-offs of more than 225 lawyers since 2012. At the time of the vote, the firm had 307 partners — 80 of which were apparently not brought on board by Morgan Lewis — and about 750 lawyers world-wide. The firm, in terms of revenue, ranked 26th in the United States in 2012, according to American Lawyer; it fell to 37th last year.

According to Wolf Theiss, the Airports Group Europe from Luxembourg — which is owned by the IFM Global Infrastructure Fund — has released a public mandatory offer to buy 20 to 29.9 percent of the nominal capital of  the Vienna International Airport.

This acquisition was already approved by the take-over commission. Wolf Theiss is advising the seller, the Vienna International Airport.

The Vienna International Airport’s top shareholders are the City of Vienna and the province of Lower Austria where the hub is located, which each own 20 percent, while an employee trust holds 10 percent.

IFM is a Melbourne-based fund that also owns a stake in London Stansted airport and holdings in airports in Melbourne, Perth, and Adelaide, in Australia. The fund plans to offer 80 euros a share, a 30 percent premium over last week’s closing price, for as much as 29.9 percent of the Airport.  According to IFM, the deal will only go ahead if IFM gets at least a 20 percent stake.

According to Bloomberg, “airport assets that promise stable returns for decades have been in demand as investors seek gains higher than those currently offered by bond markets and more stable than those from stocks. The past two years have seen some of the biggest deals in the industry, such as multibillion-dollar bids for hubs in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, and a future hub to be built in Istanbul.”

IFM announced its interest in acquiring a minority stake of the Vienna International airport four weeks ago, and its offer has been approved by the take-over commission. According to Wolf Theiss, “IFM intends to position itself as a longterm investor and could spend up to EUR 500 million for the shares. Conditions are that the acquisition contains at least a 20 percent stake of the nominal capital that would be approximately 4.2 Million shares and that the competition authorities agree on the deal without any further additional requirements.”

Wolf Theiss’s team is led by Partner Peter Oberlechner and Counsel Hartwig Kienast.

Integrites is advising the Elfa group of companies (which include the BIO, Dr. Sante, Fresh Juice, Sun Berry, and Green Pharmacy brands) on structuring business in Ukraine.

Elfa’s structuring arises from the necessity of raising over USD 10 million in funding to support its plans to grow in Europe and acquire assets in both Poland and Slovakia.

The Integrites team is led by Counsel Olga Vinglovskaya.

Peter Koves, Senior Partner of Lakatos, Koves and Partners, has been elected Vice President of IBA Bar Issues Commission.

The Bar Issues Commission supports the interests of the IBA’s member organizations and addresses the problems and issues national bar associations encounter in their daily operations, representing and protecting lawyers.

Koves (foto) has an extensive background in bar association management and guidance. In 2008, he was the president of CCBE, the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe, the first president to come from one of the former communist countries. And earlier this year, he was re-elected for a second four year term as vice president of the Budapest Bar Association.

As you can see from the new and improved CEE Legal Matters site, we’ve been working hard during the sudden failure brought about by our web host caused by server overload (a good problem to have, but a problem nevertheless). We’ve missed you, and we hope you’ve missed us.

We’ve been listening to the suggestions visitors have made about ways to make the CEE Legal Matters website better and more useful, and we are convinced that the new site — which is both faster and easier to use — is a significant improvement. Although it will be another week or so before the site is at 100%, you’ll notice that it is already easier to negotiate, with clearer categories and a more linear lay-out. The server speed is much faster than before. And you’ll notice links to new features, including the upcoming launch of our Thought Leadership section. In short: We were good before. We’re better now.

And to celebrate our return and improved form, we’re offering you not only a resumption of what we hope you’ll agree is our unprecedented level of news and information about legal matters in Central and Eastern Europe but several additional bonuses:

• First, we’re opening the subscriber-only section of the site three weeks early. Even if you’re not yet a subscriber, you can read all of the October issue’s content immediately.
• Second, we’ll also send a complementary copy of our next print issue to the first 250 of you who sign-up for our free weekly digest. You can do so at this link.
• Finally, if you’re already one of our valued subscribers, we’ve taken the liberty of extending your subscription by an additional issue as our way of saying thanks and apologizing to you for the absence of our up-to-the-minute reporting.

As we approach the first anniversary of CEE Legal Matters, we thank you for making us the leading source of legal information in our unique part of the world, and we hope you’ll stay tuned for exciting announcements in the near future. And we promise to do everything in our power to make sure no one turns out our lights again.  

Allen & Overy advised Barclays Bank PLC, BNP Paribas, and Raiffeisen Bank International as joint arrangers and lead managers on Raffeisenbank’s EUR 500 million issuance of covered bonds, which the firm claims “marks the first public international Czech covered bond issuance, [and] represents a landmark moment for Czech issuers in the international capital markets.”

The covered bonds are issued under the bank’s EUR 5 billion covered bond programme, established in 2012, and listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.

Prague-based Allen & Overy Partner Vaclav Valvoda commented: “In accessing euro liquidity through a previously untapped market, Raiffeisenbank has set a benchmark which will undoubtedly lead the way for further public international issuances of covered bonds by Czech banks in the future.”

Czech banks have been able to issue covered bonds under domestic law in Czech koruna since the early 1990s. In August 2012, the Czech Bond Act was amended, enabling Czech banks to issue euro-denominated covered bonds under English law.  Raiffeisenbank was the first Czech bank to issue international covered bonds under its programme in 2012; these covered bonds were retained and used as collateral for transactions with the European Central Bank and the European Investment Bank.

Partners Sally Onions and Vaclav Valvoda led the Allen & Overy team from London and Prague, with support from Senior Associate Petr Vybiral and Associate Charles Toland.

Jan Pudil, Member of the Board of Directors at Raiffeisenbank, said: “Issuing international covered bonds is a way of obtaining cheaper resources for expansion than on the Czech market, and in a volume we would otherwise not have been able to get.  This is excellent timing for issuing mortgage-backed bonds in euros.  Several weeks ago the ECB, as part of its new quantitative easing programme, announced the details of the Covered Bond Purchase Programme 3.  Even though Raiffeisenbank’s covered bonds are not eligible for the CBPP3, the issuance benefited from it, the interest rate the issuer pays to investors has fallen.  The ECB’s programme covers only issuers in the euro zone, but we can profit from it as well.”