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Valiunas Ellex has announced the promotion of Povilas Zukauskas, Evaldas Klimas, and Karolis Kacerauskas to the Associate Partner level “due to their good practice development, education of younger colleagues and excellent feedback from customers.”

All three lawyers began with Valiunas Ellex predecessor Lawin, and stayed through the firm’s 2015 transformation and rebranding. 

Kacerauskas is a Competition lawyer who works within the firm’s EU & Competition, Commercial, and Public Procurement & PPP practice groups. He joined the firm in June, 2005, immediately after receiving his Bachelor’s degree in Law from the Mykolas Romeris University.

Klimas works in Valiunas Ellex’s Infrastructure & Development, Real Estate, Arbitration, and Corporate & Compliance practices. He began his professional career in March 2005 with Hanner, AB, then moved to Raidla, Lejins, & Norcous’s Vilnius office in January 2008. In December 2010 he joined Lawin/Valiunas Ellex. Klimas obtained a Master of Laws from Vilnius University in 2005, and a Ph.D. from the same institution in 2011.

Zukauskas is a Certified Bankruptcy Administrator who represents clients in bankruptcy, restructuring, and related dispute resolution assignments. He serves as an administrator in bankruptcies for legal entities and private individuals. He spent one year as a lawyer with UAB Systemair and Ginestra before joining Lawin/Valiunas Ellex in 2005. He received his degree in law from Rijks Universiteit Gent, then followed that up with a Master’s from Mykola Romerio Universitetas in 2008.

Simultaneously with the announcement of Zukauskas’s, Klimas’s, and Kacerauskas’s promotions, the Valinunas Ellex announced that firm lawyers Paulius Mencas, Marius Dobilas and Darius Bugailiskis had become Senior Associates, and that Justas Cesnavicius, Vytautas Treigys, and Nerijus Patlabys had become Associates.

Greenberg Traurig has advised Alior Bank on its agreement to acquire Bank BPH’s core business from affiliates of GE Capital. Weil advised GE Capital on the sale. The agreement was signed on March 31, 2016.

Alior Bank has valued Bank BPH’s core business at PLN 1.5 billion. Completion of the transaction is subject to fulfillment of conditions precedent, including consent of the relevant antimonopoly authority and approvals and clearances of the PFSA. The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of 2016. 

The transaction will be conducted by the acquisition of the shares in Bank BPH through a public tender offer followed by demerger of the core business of Bank BPH into Alior Bank. The transaction is to be financed by a rights issue of Alior Bank.

“This is the second transaction, after Meritum Bank, in which Greenberg Traurig is representing us,” said Wojciech Sobieraj, the President of the Management Board of Alior Bank. “We highly appreciate our cooperation with the law firm and its role in establishing the innovative structure of the acquisition of Bank BPH. This is just the beginning of our cooperation, the demerger of Bank BPH and the offering of Alior Bank shares are ahead of us.”

The Greenberg Traurig team is led by Senior Partner Lejb Fogelman, Partner Stephen Horvath from the London Office, and Partner Lukasz Pawlak.

The Weil team was supervised by Managing Partner Pawel Rymarz, and led by Partner Lukasz Gasinski. The firm’s core team on the deal consisted of Associates Jacek Zawadzki and Jakub Zagrajek, assisted by Counsel Monika Kierepa and Associates Michal Bobrzynski, Katarzyna Lukaszewicz, and Magdalena Medynska. Partner Iwona Her and Associate Irmina Trybalska advised on anti-monopoly issues connected with the transaction. Matters related to tax law were handled by Partner Robert Krasnodebski, assisted by Associates Marek Kanczew and Natalia Wolkowycka. London-based Senior Consultant Ian Hamilton and Associate Muzaffar Shah advised on UK law aspects of the transaction.

Editor’s Note: After this article was published, Linklaters announced that it had advised PZU, the main shareholder of Alior Bank, on the deal. The firm’s Warsaw team was led by Counsel Marcin Schulz and included, among others, Partners Daniel Cousens and Cezary Wisniewski and Associates Joanna Gawlicka, Pavlos Kaimakliotis, Olga Kruk, Magdalena Orzol, and Szymon Renkiewicz.

Former Musat & Asociatii Partner Iulian Iosif has joined Suciu Popa & Asociatii in Bucharest. 

Suciu Popa was set up by a team of lawyers — led by Miruna Suciu and Luminita Popa — who left Musat & Asociatii earlier this year (as reported on by CEE Legal Matters on February 1, 2016). With the addition of Iosif, the total number of Partners at Suciu Popa rises to 6. Prior to joining the new firm, Iosif had worked for Musat & Asociatii for over 13 years.  

Miruna Suciu, Co-Managing Partner of Suciu Popa commented on the hire: “We are very confident in Iulian’s professional skills but also in his personal qualities which match perfectly the values of Suciu Popa and strongly believe his addition to the team will help grow client satisfaction and consolidate our team quality.”

Belarus’s Revera has announced that it advised MSQRD in the acquisition of the company by Facebook, Inc.

As reported by CEE Legal Matters on March 28, 2016, Sorainen advised Facebook on the deal. 

According to Revera, the firm “provided legal support to the team members of MSQRD, including co-founders Eugene Nevgen, Sergey Gonchar, and Eugene Zatepyakin as well as to the mentor of the startup — Yuri Gurski — and was involved in the complex support of the closing regarding the Belarusian aspects of the deal.”

The Revera team consisted of Head of the Corporate Practice Helen Mourashko, the Head of the IT Sub-practice Ulyana Karpekina, and Managing Partner Dmitry Arkhipenko.

Zivkovic Samardzic has successfully represented Serbian investigative journalist Brankica Stankovic, broadcaster B92, and the B92 news and current affairs editor and Board of Directors Chair Veran Matic against a defamation claim brought by Uros Avramovic, a leader of the Red Star Belgrade football team fan club.

Brankica Stankovic is a prominent Serbian investigative journalist and author of the investigative TV program “Insajder,” which has appeared on B92 since 2004, reporting on topics of war crimes, corruption, crimes committed by the security service, the assassination of Serbian prime minister, disputed privatizations, hooligans and extremist groups, and the mafia in football, the judiciary, and the construction industry. As the result of her reports on Insajder, Stankovic has been under police protection since 2009. 

Avramovic’s claim related to B92’s rerun, in 2012, of three episodes of Insajder from 2009 which focused on several football team fan clubs which the Public Prosecutor’s office sought to have banned for inciting racial, national and religious hatred and violations of human or minority rights.

According to Zivkovic Samardzic, “in its first instance judgment recently delivered to the parties, the Higher Court in Belgrade confirmed that all statements of facts related to Avramovic and uncovered in Insajder were true and ordered plaintiff to cover defendants’ legal costs.”

The Zivkovic Samardzic team successfully representing Stankovic, B92, and Matic was led by Senior Associate Kruna Savovic.

Poland’s Lesnodorski Slusarek i Wspolnicy law firm has represented Peter Marusarz in a dispute with his sisters in the District Court of Zakopene over souvenirs of both parties’ father, Stanislaw Marusarz.

LSW describes Stanislaw Marusarz as “a legendary athlete” from Zakopane (a city in southern Poland just above the Slovakian border). According to the firm, Marusarz “was an excellent sportsman, an Olympics participant, and a multiple Polish champion, who gave his last ski jump at the age of 53! He left his mark in the history of Polish winter sports and in the history of Poland also thanks to his bravery during the Second World War.”

According to LSW, the sisters had wanted to split the collection, making its presentation as a whole impossible. As a result of Peter Marusarz’s success in court, however, “the collection of memorabilia documenting the athletic achievements and the life of Stanislaw Marusarz … will finally be displayed in a hall under the Great Krokiew (Wielka Krokiew) ski-jumping hill!” The Hall under Great Krokiew will carry Marusarz’s name.

The LSW team representing Peter Marusarz was led by Partner Marcin Melzacki.

Taylor Wessing CEE — which the firm describes as “the CEE/SEE Competence Centre of the international law firm Taylor Wessing” — has announced that, on April 4, long-time Weinhold Legal Partner Thilo Hoffmann joined the firm in Prague, bringing the number of partners at Taylor Wessing CEE to an all-time high of 35.

Coming from Weinhold Legal (now functioning as the Czech office of EY Law (as reported on September 4, 2015), which he joined in 2001 and where he led the German Desk, Hoffmann specializes in Corporate/M&A and Restructuring. Before working in a law firm, he worked for four and a half years as a Project Manager with the European Commission and the European Parliament. 

At Taylor Wessing Hoffmann will focus on Corporate/M&A and Capital Markets, and he will participate in the firm’s Automotive Industry Group.  

Commenting on the addition of Hoffmann in Prague and the recent promotions of Slovakian attorneys Jan Lazur and Juraj Frindrich to the firm’s partnership (as reported by CEE Legal Matters on April 4, 2016), Taylor Wessing CEE Managing Partner Raimund Cancola said: “The further enlargement of the Taylor Wessing CEE partner circle is yet another sign of the law firm’s high-level growth in CEE.” 

Sorainen has announced that, on April 5, 2016, Latvia’s Vidzeme Urban District Court announced its judgment on behalf of the firm’s client, the Bilzu Birojs concert organizer and promoter, in a copyright dispute with the Copyright and Communication Consulting Agency/Latvian Authors Association (AKKA/LAA) involving a recording of a concert by Russian musician Boris Grebenshikov. By its judgment, the Court dismissed AKKA/LAA’s claim.

The dispute relates to a 2009 Grebenshikov concert organized by Bilzu Birojs, which — according to Sorainen — “made a copyright agreement with the artist to record the concert and distribute DVD copies in the Baltic States.” According to Sorainen, although Bilzu Birojs “fully settled payments” due to Grebenshikov, AKKA/LAA sued for licence payments, alleging that the Russian singer’s works had been used without permission. In 2012, Riga City Central District Court found for AKKA/LAA, but its judgment was reversed by the Supreme Court in 2015. The case was reviewed again by Latvia’s Vidzeme Urban District Court on March 22, 2016, leading up to its April 5 judgment. 

The interests of Bilzu Birojs were represented in court by Sorainen Senior Associate Andris Taurins, who informed CEE Legal Matters that the court’s April 5 judgment is subject to appeal.

Sayenko Kharenko has acted as legal counsel to the EBRD on its EUR 40 million loan to Kronospan UA, a wood-based panel producer, to finance its capital expenditure.

Kronospan — a Ukrainian subsidiary of Kronospan Holdings East Limited, Cyprus — is, according to Sayenko Kharenko, “the market leader in the wood-based panel sector.” The company manufactures wood-based panel products at over 40 sites in 27 countries, employs over 14,000 people, and has revenues in excess of EUR 4.5 billion a year.

The EBRD is the largest international financial investor in Ukraine. As of March 1, 2016, it had a total cumulative commitment over EUR 12 billion in 363 projects throughout the country.

The EBRD’s loan assumes upgrading of the Kronospan’s key production facilities and equipment. The financing raised under the project will also be used by Kronospan to invest into a new biomass boiler that should provide a significant reduction of greenhouse emissions. According to Sayenko Kharenko, “Kronospan will be the first wood-panel producer installing such a boiler onsite and will set the standard for energy and waste efficiency in the sector.”

The total project cost is EUR 67 million, with EUR 40 million coming from the EBRD and the remaining EUR 27 million provided by Kronospan itself.  

The Sayenko Kharenko team for the current transaction was led by Partner Nazar Chernyavsky, and included Counsel Anton Korobeynikov and Associates Alla Kushnirenko, Marta Lozenko, and Taras Shyb.

Kronospan was represented by Polakis Sarris on matters of Cypriot law and Geiger Mohr Weder Thaler Kagi on matters of Swiss law. The company did not retain Ukrainian counsel on the deal.

Wierzbowski Eversheds has advised the Centerscape group in the acquisition of a commercial real estate portfolio with properties located in Chorzow, Prudnik, Rawa Mazowiecka, and Trzcianka. The properties included in the acquired portfolio are rented by what Wierzbowski Eversheds describes as “the leading retail chain operators in Poland.”

Centerscape is a leading investor, developer, owner, and manager of integrated into urban fabric shopping malls and stores, where the main tenants are operators of food retail chains. The group operates in Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic.

The Wierzbowski Eversheds team consisted of Of Counsel Patryk Galicki and Associate Kamil Lewandowski.

When contacted by CEE Legal Matters, Wierzbowski Eversheds explained that it was unable to provide other information about the deal, including the identity of the sellers or the law firm representing them.