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Janis Lagzdins has left Eversheds Bitans to lead PricewaterhouseCoopers Legal in Latvia. 

   

Janis Lagzdins 

Eversheds Bitans itself got its start as the firm associated with PWC a decade ago, though it separated from the firm when the Enron bankruptcy put great pressure on the Big 4 accounting firms to spin off their teams providing legal advice to clients. “So,” Lagzdins says with a laugh, “I can say I’m starting again at the beginning with PWC.”

Lagzdins initially joined PWC as Head of Legal in July. The post had previously been held by Estonian Karl Paadam, who led the Latvian team as well as its Talinn counterpart. Paadum now focuses on the Estonian office, and on his regional role as Head of PwC Legal Baltics. In August PWC Legal became independent of PWC, and Lagzdins’ title changed as well, to Managing Partner. Lagzdins minimizes the change, however, saying it’s a formality more than anything else. He explains that PWC Legal is “like a separate entity, but at the same time [remains] very integrated into the network of PWC.” As a result, he emphasizes, “we are working shoulder to shoulder with our tax consultant, assurance, and advisory colleagues.”

Although Lagzdins describes PWC Legal in Estonia as a “full service” firm (except for general civic litigation), he feels the association with PWC is a strength. He says, “we have a lot of clients from PWC, and a lot of clients in cooperation with the tax team for reorganizations and restructurings, so therefore we are in a good position in the market right now, because in Latvia most firms just offer legal assistance, and clients have to search for separate tax advice. So in that way we are one step in front of our competition.

Lagzdins currently manages a team of 5 lawyers, but he says he expects to add two more senior associates before the end of this year, and he hopes to had another 2 in 2015.

Egorov, Puginsky, Afanasiev & Partners has persuaded the Vologda Region Arbitrazh Court to dismiss in full a claim that the Russian utility model patent held by ZAO Ultracraft is invalid.

The utility model refers to an innovative technology for ultrasonic testing of steel structures used for high-tech equipment supplied by Ultracraft to Germany, Japan, and other countries.

The Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners attorneys had earlier managed to have Rospatent’s decision to revoke Ultracraft’s patent cancelled in the Intellectual Property Court, ruling that the Chamber for Patent Disputes had improperly accepted copies of  written evidence that did not comply with “the validity criterion.” This was the first time the IP Court had considered the issue and made such a ruling, and EPAM described the result as “a landmark decision.”

Ultracraft was represented by Pavel Sadovsky, the Head of Intellectual Property/TMT at Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners, and Associate Irina Kosovskaya.

King & Wood Mallesons SJ Berwin advised VR Equitypartner GmbH on the sale of its shareholding in CleanCar to the Munich-based Holler Foundation. Sud Beteiligungen GmbH sold its shareholding in CleanCar to the Holler Foundation as well. 

CleanCar — based in Meerbusch, near Dusseldorf — operates a total of 27 high-performance full-service car washes along with petrol stations in Germany and Austria that also offer additional services such as vehicle interior cleaning and oil changes. In the 2012/2013 fiscal year the company had a turnover of approximately EUR 130 million.

VR Equitypartner and Sud Beteiligungen had been involved with CleanCar — which was founded in 1986 — since 2007. VR Equitypartner is one of the leading private equity financiers in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. According to a King & Wood press release, the two medium-sized family companies “are supported by the joint subsidiary of DZ BANK and WGZ BANK on a target-driven basis, underpinned by VR Equitypartner’s decades of experience in solving complex strategic financing issues.”

The team at King & Wood Mallesons SJ Berwin advising VR Equitypartner on the transaction was led by Partner Christoph Brenner, assisted by Counsel Stefan Sebastiani and Associate Bernhard Schmaderer. 

Sorainen’s Lithuania office has assisted the Lithuania Ministry of Finance in borrowing EUR 1 billion in the international capital markets for a 12-year period at 2.125% — the lowest coupon in the country’s history.

According to Sorainen, the historical low interest rate reflects the positive view of Lithuania, “which is already treated as a high grade euro zone country.” The notes are due in 2026.

Sorainen reports that “the notes with a total principal amount of EUR 1 billion have been issued at a yield of 2.322%, with their issue price accounting for 97.957% of their face value.”

HSBC Bank, J.P Morgan Securities, and Societe Generale were chosen as the lead-managing banks. Sorainen Partner Tomas Kontautas, Senior Associate Daiva Liubomirskiene, and Associate Agne Sovaite advised on Lithuanian law-related issues.

Triniti Estonia has promoted attorneys Ergo Blumfeldt and Ramil Pardi to Partner.

   

Ergo Blumfeldt and Ramil Pardi (triniti.ee)

“It is good to foster fresh energy in our team,” said Villu Otsmann, the Estonian Managing Partner of Triniti. “The two long-time lawyers and associates of our firm are now ready to take on a partner’s responsibility and the entire team is willing to set new targets.”

Ergo Blumfeldt is a transaction adviser who has recently participated in negotiations for the shareholders’ agreement of the Rail Baltic Joint Venture between Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, advised on the expansion of the Utilitas Group (the acquisition of the power-stations and district heating companies Tallinna Elektrijaam, Tallinna Kute, and Erakute), and advised on the restructuring of the national Estonian Air airline. According to the firm, as Partner, Blumfeldt will primarily deal with infrastructure and investment projects. 

Ramil Pardi advises in the fields of business law, real estate, and migration law. As Partner, he will focus primarily on IT and real estate. Pardi’s latest advisory projects include the division of the Kitman-Thulema furniture and retail apparel producer, assisting in the obtaining of work and residential permits for Skype and Transferwise specialists, and advising other clients in complex planning and zoning procedures. 

With the promotions Triniti now has 6 Partners in Estonia. 

Randa Havel Legal has represented the Malaysian company Aspirasi Pertiwi in connection with an agreement on strategic cooperation and investment with Evektor, the Czech aircraft manufacture.

According to the firm, “this cooperation is very important for the future development in the field of aviation industry in the Czech Republic, especially finalization of the development and launch of serial production of a multi-purpose twin engine aircraft EV-55 Outback. For the Malaysian side, the partnership with the Czech aircraft manufacturer opens the way to the cooperation in a number of technologically advanced areas, which are priority for Malaysia. This investment is backed up by a former longtime Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad.”

According to the Czech Ambassador Rudolf Hykl, the project is unprecedented in the Economic cooperation between Malaysia and the Czech Republic: “The agreement will support not only the development of the aviation industry in our country, but it will also open other business and commercial opportunities for the Czech side in Malaysia. Its implications reach also the area of technical education for Malaysian students in the Czech Republic in the future.”

Integrites has successfully advised and represented the MTI group of companies in a dispute with the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Income and Fees.

MTI is a vertically-integrated group of companies, which operates in Ukraine and “is involved in all phases of the life cycle of IT products, ranging from their delivery to the end their use in both corporate and private clients. The company acts as an authorized distributor, integrator and service partner of several tens of world-famous producers of IT-products.”

According to Integrites, Protoria, an electronics store chain in Ukraine — and a member of MTI — was charged by the Ukrainian tax authorities with violating various provisions of the tax code. Protoria’s challenge to the penalties levied against it in the District Administrative Court of Kiev failed. The company then retained Integrites, which succeeded in having the District Administrative Court’s judgment quashed, and successfully demonstrated that the company had in fact been fully compliant. 

Integrites lawyers Oleg Radutnogo and Denis Kitsenko worked on the case, under the supervision of firm Managing Partner Ruslan Biernacki. 

Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners has advised the NIKIMT-Atomstroy joint stock company — a subsidiary of the state-owned Rosatom — on the spin-off of Zheleznogorskaya TEC. According to the firm, “the deal structure provided for placing of all shares in the spin-off company (Zheleznogorskaya TEC OJSC) in favor of the parent company (NIKIMT-Atomstroy OJSC).”

The firm obtained the consent of the FAS of Russia for the creation of Zheleznogorskaya TEC, assisted in the registration of the newly established entity, and advised on the Zheleznogorskaya TEC issue of shares.

“We are pleased to continue our cooperation with the state corporation ‘Rosatom”’and NIKIMT-Atomstroy OJSC,” EPAM Partner Dmitriy Glazounov, who coordinated the project, is quoted as saying. “That project was interesting from a professional point of view. During the project we had to solve complex legal issues including those connected with composing of the separation balance sheet, identifying the source for the authorized capital of the spin-off company, and also the features of the stock promotion in such cases.”

Glazounov was assisted by EPAM Senior Associate Oleg Ushakov and Associate Gilyana Haraeva.

OAO Sberbank, Russia’s biggest bank, announced on Friday that a claim has been filed with the Court of Justice of the European Union over Western sanctions imposed on it following Crimea’s break away from Ukraine.

The European Union and the United States introduced in July the first round of sanctions against Russia which target its banking, defense and energy sectors, as well as certain Russian businessmen.

Notably, major Russian banks, including Sberbank, VTB, Gazprombank, Rosselkhozbank, Vnesheconombank, are barred from Western capital. American and European investors were forbidden to issue loans to Russian banks and buy their newly issued stock and bonds.

In addition, the US and EU starting August 1 banned the import of machinery for deep sea oil survey and rilling, Arctic operations and shale oil drilling in Russia. In the latest sanctions batch, imposed on September 12, the EU targeted a number of Russian oil companies, including Rosneft, Transneft and Gazprom Neft.

Russian oil giant Rosneft and billionaire Arkady Rotenberg earlier filed suits with the EU Court of Justice over sanctions which had been imposed on them.

This article is powered by our friends at RAPSI. It was originally published here. 

You can read more about the Russia sanctions and its impact on law firms in the country in the latest issue of the CEE Legal Matters Magazine. 

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has advised CVC Capital Partners (CVC) on an approximately EUR 700 million-value acquisition of the Paroc Group. The seller was advised by Macfarlanes and Borenius with Evershed also advising the management team of Paroc.

Headquartered in Helsinki, Paroc is the leading producer of stone wool insulation in the Nordic and Baltic regions, producing building insulation and technical insulation for the residential and commercial construction markets, as well as various industrial applications. The group has approximately 2,100 employees and a pan-European sales presence, supported by 9 production facilities in Finland, Sweden, Lithuania, Poland and Russia.

On the deal, Kari Lehtinen, CEO of Paroc, stated: “The last five years have been successful, especially given the challenging economic backdrop and we are grateful to our former owners for their support during this period. We see a strong future for our business, with recovery in many of our markets expected in the coming years, and with our presence in the fast-growing Russian market. We look forward to taking Paroc forward in close cooperation with CVC, who are supportive of our strategy. CVC offer us a depth of experience and a strong track record with value-creating investments, expertise in the building materials sector and in the Nordic region. We are excited to share with CVC the next phase of our growth.” 

In a joint statement, Peter Tornquist and Soren Vestergaard-Poulsen, partners at CVC, said: “We have known Paroc as a successful and well-managed company for many years. It is recognised amongst customers for the high quality of its products and innovative solutions. Paroc has strong market positions in the Nordic and Baltic regions, and has, over recent years, expanded in the CEE region and most recently, in Russia with the establishment of domestic production in 2014. We look forward to a close cooperation with Paroc’s management in the coming years and to support them in the further development and continued expansion of the group.”

According to a Paroc press release, the Group’s current shareholder group has approved the transaction, and the completion of the transaction is subject only to the receipt of customary competition clearances.

The Freshfields team working on the deal was led by corporate Partner Tim Wilmot alongside Senior Associate Charles Hayes. The Macfarlanes team was led by corporate M&A Partners Stephen Drewitt and Howard Corney and the Borenius one was led by Managing Partner Jari Vikio and our core team included Partners Andreas Doepel, Ilkka Alto-Setala, Juha Koponen, Casper Herler, and Russian Managing Partner Andrei Gusev.