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Goltsblat BLP has provided legal support to Dogus Avenue, an exclusive franchisee of the Crate & Barrel global home furnishings brand, in launching its retail business in Russia.

The first Russian Crate & Barrel was launched in Afimall City in Moscow on September 18, 2014. The first store of the Crate & Barrel was in an old elevator factory on Wells Street, Chicago, It opened its doors in 1962 as a family business. Today, Crate & Barrel is a privately held company owned by the Otto Group of Hamburg, Germany, the second largest online retailer worldwide. According to Crate & Barrel, their relationship with the Otto Group, which began in 1998, has enhanced its successful expansion across all channels.

The Goltsblat BLP team was led by Partners Anton Sitnikov and Yuri Chernobrivtsev. 

Dorda has announced the promotion of associates Andreas Seling and Stephan Steinhofer to Junior Partner.

   

Stephan Steinhofer and Andreas Seling

Andreas Seling specializes in IP, unfair competition, social media, and consumer goods law. He also lectures on these specialist topics at various universities of applied sciences in Austria, including the Technikum Wien in Vienna and the University of Applied Sciences in Graz. Seling obtained his law degree from the University of Salzburg. 

According to a firm statement, the “continuous growth” reflected by Seling’s appointment to Junior Partner and the similar promotion of Martina Grama in 2012, “is a result of the sustained increase in demand for the team based on its reputation in and beyond Austria.”  

Stephan Steinhofer is an expert in litigation, arbitration, and civil law. Before joining the firm in 2011, Steinhofer had worked as a research associate at the European Center for E-Commerce and Internet Law (2007-2010) and gained valuable overseas experience in 2010 while working as a legal intern at Alston & Bird in New York. He graduated from the University of Vienna (in the top 1% of his class), where, during his studies, he was an active member of the Austrian Students’ Union, stood on the Student Council, and acted as Vice Chairman of the PhD in Law program from 2009 to 2011 and student representative at the law department between 2005 and 2009. Steinhofer is the author of several specialist publications in the fields of IT and copyright law, as well as in procedural law and arbitration proceedings. He was admitted to the Austrian bar in September 2014.

SORAINEN Belarus is advising the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on the grant of a EUR 10 million loan to the Minsk Soft Drink Factory.

The latter represents the largest manufacturer of soft drinks, mineral and drinking water in Belarus. The seven-year loan will enable the factory to upgrade its equipment, double its transport fleet, and refinance part of its existing debt.

SORAINEN is acting in the transaction as Belarusian legal counsel to the EBRD. Office Managing Partner Kiryl Apanasevich and Senior Associate Ann Laevskaya lead the firm’s team on the matter.

Vavrovsky Heine Marth has announced that litigator Philipp Strasser has become the firm’s new partner.

   

Philipp Strasser (Vavrovsky Heine Marth)

Strasser is an expert on insurance law and dispute resolution, with additional experience in Corporate Compliance, as well as in general business and economic law. He joins the firm from Grassner Lenz Thewanger & Partner in Linz, and previously worked for 5 years at Herbst Kinsky Rechtsanwalte in Vienna.

Strasser has been a member of the Vienna Bar Association since 2008. He obtained his law degree from the University of Innsbruck.

Partner Nikolaus Vavrovsky referred to an increasing demand from the firm’s clients in the insurance sector in explaining the addition: “We are delighted to win Philipp Strasser as a new partner. His extensive expertise in insurance law combined with his experience and know-how in the field of dispute resolution is an important deepening our Consultancy spectrum.”

Kambourov & Partners has advised WITTE Automotive Bulgaria, a subsidiary of Germany’s WITTE Automotive, on the opening its new auto part manufacturing plant in the city of Ruse, in Bulgaria.

   

from the left: R. Golz (managing director WITTE Automotive), V. Shtonov (minister of economy BG), T. Jindra (managing director WITTE Automotive Bulgaria), R. Plevneliev (president BG), Dr. M. Puschel (chairman of the supervisory board WITTE Automotive), P. Stoilov (lord mayor of Ruse, BG), E. Ruckert (managing director WITTE Automotive), S. Ivanov (regional government), H.Hristov (managing director WITTE Automotive Bulgaria), R. Eble (managing director WITTE Automotive) (witte-automotive.com)

The October 1, 2014 ceremony to mark the official opening of the plant was attended by Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev, the country’s Interim Minister of Economy and Energy, Vassil Shtonov, and Ruse Mayor Plamen Stoylov.

According to a Kambourov press release, “he plant was built for only a year and is one of the largest in the municipality of Ruse, consisting of innovative constructions and serving as a high-tech production capacity. It is also eco-friendly and should produce minimum air and water emissions.”

“I am a president but I am also an engineer and I have to say that this plant is a very important achievement not only for Ruse but for Bulgaria,” Bulgarian President Plevneliev declared in his opening speech. Manfred Pueschel, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of WITTE Automotive also stated that: “On 10th of October 2013, we met here for the laying of the foundation stone. Today, only one year later, we are celebrating the official opening of the most modern plant of WITTE Automotive covering an area of 15,000 square meters and that inclusive the logistics infrastructure.” 

According to a WITTE press release, the amount of investment will reach approximately EUR 10 million until the end of the year 2015. The production of tailgate and seat latches, handles, and the WITOL Automatic Tolerance Compensation System will be produced at the plant. 

Kambourov & Partners’ Real Estate department assisted WITTE Automotive Bulgaria on all matters related to the development and construction of the plant (including negotiation, drafting and conclusion of design and construction agreements), advice on the acquisition of land and properties, and regulatory issues and change of land status. 

Motieka & Audzevicius has represented the interests of the publicly listed Linas Agro Group in a shareholders dispute within ZUB Eriskiai that the firm describes as “a long and complex shareholders dispute that ended in settlement.”

The Motieka & Audzevicius team drafted the main, settlement, and participation transfer agreements and other necessary documents for what it describes as “the successful and speedy implementation of the transaction.”

No other details were provided.

Dorda is advising the DIY chain bauMax on its restructuring measures in Eastern Europe, including the sale of bauMax Bulgaria to local investor Haedus that was announced on September 11, 2014, and the sale of the company’s Romanian sites to the French Adeo Group in July, 2014.

   

(baumax.com)

Subject to the approval of the competition authorities, Haedus will run the eight bauMax sites in Bulgaria. The sale is set to take place in the form of a share deal. The purchase price was not  disclosed.  

In both the Bulgarian and Romanian deals, Dorda Partners Felix Horlsberger and Martin Brodey led the team, assisted by Associate Laura Weissel and Lawyer Veit Ohlberger.

Last month, the lender syndicate of bauMax sold the “Sammlung Essl” art collection to a company controlled by the Haselsteiner Group. In that deal (originally reported on by CEE Legal Matters on September 5, 2014), Dorda worked across the table, advising the buyer. 

Lavrynovych & Partners has acted as legal counsel on Ukrainian law issues related to the provision of a CAD 200 million (approximately EUR 141.4 million) loan to Ukraine by Canada. 

The Loan Agreement was executed on September 17, 2014 between Export Development Canada as agent for Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada and Ukraine, represented by the Minister of Finance of Ukraine, acting on the instructions of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. The loan matures in 2019.

Legal support was provided by Lavrynovych & Partners Partner Olena Zubchenko and Associate Pavlo Shevchenko.

Belarus’s Revera Consulting Group has announced that on September 30, 2014 Alexander Goretsky, the firm’s Managing Partner, was accepted into the database of arbitrators by the Russian Arbitration Association.

   

Alexander Goretsky (revera.by)

According to the firm, Goretsky becomes only the second Belarusian in the RAA’s database, following Yan Funk, the President of the International Arbitration Court of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Belarus.

According to Goretsky: “Nowadays the situation in the sphere of international commercial arbitration is characterized by the fact that consideration of the most serious disputes with CIS companies participating is conducted in leading European arbitration institutions. Establishment of the Russian Arbitration Association may promote changes in this situation. And RAA imposing high, but objective requirements to its arbitrators is a necessary precondition thereto.”

According to a Revera Consulting Group statement, “the goal of the Russian Arbitration Association established in 2013 is to develop courts of arbitration and international commercial arbitration courts in Russia and CIS, to popularize Russia as a place of arbitration, to promote Russian arbitrators locally and internationally, as well as to improve competence of Russian lawyers in alternative ways of disputes settlement.”

SORAINEN Belarus has acted as local counsel for the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) on the extension of a USD 15 million loan to the “Vasily Kozlov” Minsk Electrotechnical Plant (METZ).

The loan agreement was signed in Minsk on August 18, and is designed to finance modernisation of equipment used in the production of transformers. The total project value exceeds USD 55 million.

METZ is the largest European manufacturer of electrical equipment employed in the oil extraction industry, the telecoms sector, in railways, and in power plants.

The EDB is an international financial institution whose founding mission is to facilitate the economic growth of its member states, expansion of mutual trade and development of integration in the Eurasian region through investment activity.

The EDB was advised by Sorainen Belarus Managing Partner Kiryl Apanasevich and Senior Associate Ann Laevskaya.