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Karanovic & Nikolic reports that on February 16, 2016, the Bosnian Competition Council made a ruling in favor of cable operator (and firm client) Telemach in its case against HD Win, the owner of the Arena Sport sports channel and a subsidiary of Telekom Serbia.

The Council imposed a fine against HD Win for its abuse of dominant position and ordered it to enter into an agreement with Telemach in order to allow its subscribers access to Arena Sport.

According to K&N, “the focus of this dispute has been the refusal of HD Win to offer the Arena Sport channel to Telemach, which is a leading cable operator in Bosnia & Herzegovina and part of the United Group, which was acquired by KKR in 2014” (an acquisition described by CEE Legal Matters on May 15, 2014). In this matter, the K&N team, led by Partners Rastko Petakovic and Nihan Sijercic, successfully claimed that HD Win effectively refused to deal with Telemach by engaging in delaying tactics.

“In contrast,” K&N reports, “HD WIN had allowed access to Arena Sport to a myriad of smaller operators, that do not pose a significant threat to its related IPTV business in Bosnia & Herzegovina (Telekomunikacije Republike Srpske, which is another subsidiary of Telekom Serbia), by successfully reaching distribution agreements with those operators in a matter of weeks.”

Finally, according to K&N, “after seven months of deliberating on the issue, the Bosnian Competition Council found that HD Win had breached the Bosnian commercial regulations by limiting competition through giving unequal and unfavourable conditions to Telemach in the process of acquiring distribution rights. HD Win was thus – among other penalties (including financial ones) – ordered to provide Telemach with the distribution rights for the requested content according to the same conditions that were applied in making prior agreements with other, minor cable operators in Bosnia & Herzegovina.”

Noerr has advised the shareholders of the malt producer Tivoli Malz, Hamburg, on the sale of its Global Malt division to England’s Anglia Maltings Group — a long-term cooperation partner of Global Malt. Charles Russell Speechlys worked alongside Noerr and advised the sellers on matters of English law, while Stephenson Harwood (on matters of English law) and Heuking, Kuhn, Luer, Wojtek (on German law) advised the buyers. The parties agreed not to disclose the purchase price or any other details of the transaction.

In its six plants in Germany and one plant in Poland Global Malt produces approximately 400,000 tons of brewing malt per year and exports worldwide. The Hamburg plant is the Group’s largest. 

The German-Polish Noerr team was led by Berlin Corporate Partner Christoph Spiering. Also involved were Berlin Partner Carsten Heinz, Dresden Partner Yvonne Dietzel, and Warsaw Partner Arkadiusz Ruminski. Noerr Associates involved included Robert Korndorfer, Clemens Schonemann, Florian-Felix Marquardt, Krzysztof Banaszek, Klaudyna Lichnowska, Slawomir Morawski, Agnieszka Witaszek, and Katarzyna Ziolkowska.

The Charles Russell Speechlys team was led by Partner Andrew Clarke.  

FBK Financial Advisory and FBK Legal have announced that they will audit the 2015 financial and business operations of the ANO Sports Broadcasting Studio to provide a “comprehensive evaluation of the organization’s activities … to assess internal controls in place and to elaborate guidelines on management efficiency improvement [that is] critical at a time of transition.”

ANO Sports Broadcasting Studio is the largest authorized broadcaster of international sports competitions and TV broadcaster of high-profile sports events in Russia. On the instruction of Russian President Vladimir Putin of June 25, 2015, the production and technological facilities of the ANO Sports Broadcasting Studio are to be transferred to the MatchTV channel, which began broadcasting on November 1, 2015.

Order no. 5/2016 for the establishment of the RES-Electricity final mandatory quota of green certificates for 2015 was published in the Official Gazette of Romania on February 26, 2016. The initial estimated quota was established under the Government Decision no. 1110/12.12.2014 at 11.9%, meaning 0.274 green certificates/MWh.

Currently, Order no. 5/2016 set out a slightly different final quota at 0.278 green certificates/MWh, due to changes in the initial estimated RES-Electricity 2015 production and due to the impact of exemption agreements of large consumers.

At the end of 2015, there was an excess of approximately 5,000,000 green certificates.

Estimated RES- Electricity quota for 2016

In effect as of January 1, 2016, Order no. 183/2015 for the establishment of the RESElectricity estimated quota which benefits from green certificates in 2016 sets out a quota of 12.15% from the total final gross electricity consumption. The mandatory quota is established at 0.317 GC/MWh.

According to Order no. 183/2015, the total quantity of green certificates to be issued in 2016 is 18,909,036, whereas only a number of 12,116,662 falls under the coverage of the support scheme. This translates into a surplus of 6,792,374 green certificates that could be registered in 2016. This oversupply shall be added to the already existing excess registered from 2015 that has not yet expired.

The total estimated consumption exempted from the mandatory purchase quota is expected to increase to 7,500 GWh.

Therefore, the situation of RES-Electricity producers will not improve in 2016, especially due to the low purchase quota and the exemptions of large consumers.

The green certificate prices for 2016

According to Order no. 3/2016, the legal pricing thresholds for green certificates set out by ANRE for 2016 range between RON 132.4045 (EUR 29.3971) and RON 269.7247 (EUR 59.8856). Compared to the previous year, the price increased due to variations in the exchange rate.

Companies that do not fulfill the annual quota for the year 2016 will have to buy the green certificates at a higher price of RON 539.4450 (EUR 119.7702) per each nonacquired green certificate. This price increased in comparison with the prior value from 2016.

By Bryan W. Jardine, Partner, and Ciprian Glodeanu, Partner, Wolf Theiss

Integrites has provided Nova Poshta Group with what it describes as “complex legal assistance on compliance with Ukrainian competition law requirements.”

In particular, the firm reports, its lawyers “conducted due diligence of agreements [and] assisted with bringing the corporate structure in line with Ukrainian law requirements [and] with obtaining merger clearance approvals from the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine.” 

According to Integrites, Nova Poshta has, since its incorporation in 2001, “become a leader of the express delivery market.” The company has over 2200 depots and over 1400 automatic parcel terminals across almost 1000 towns and cities of Ukraine. In 2015 the company delivered almost 100 million parcels. In 2014 Nova Poshta opened representative offices in Moldova and Georgia, and in October 2015 it launched international delivery to 200 countries around the world.

The firm’s team included Partners Vyacheslav Korchev and Oleksandr Aleksyeyenko, Senior Associate Yevgen Blok, and Associate Ivanna Gumenna. 

Image Source: flickr.com

The Mrowiec Fialek and Partners firm has announced that it has advised Arena.pl Sp. z o.o., which it describes as “the operator of [the] innovative sale platform arena.pl,” on the implementation of “a social networking ownership program.”

According to Mrowiec Fialek & Partners, “within the scope of the program, the platform’s users will be able to obtain the subscription right of shares in Arena.pl S.A., which is listed on NewConnect.” NewConnect is an alternative trading system operated by the Warsaw Stock Exchange outside the regulated market for “young, growing companies, especially in the high-tech sector.” 

The Mrowiec Fialek and Partners team providing “comprehensive advice on all aspects related to the submission of the planned promotional campaign of shares offer of Arena.pl S.A.” was led by Partner Zbigniew Mrowiec, who was assisted by Senior Associates Pawel Cyganik and Anna Paszek.

Tark Grunte Sutkiene has successfully represented the GFC Good Finance Company AS payment institution before the Estonian Financial Supervision Authority in proceedings for approval of its provision of cross-border payment services in the Polish Republic.

According to TGS, “as of 29 February 2016, GFC Good Finance Company AS can render payment services including issuing payment cards in the territory of Poland.”

Tark Grunte Sutkiene Senior Associate Lada Riisna led the firm’s team on the matter.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Corporate Attorney Stephan Pachinger has been promoted to Partner in the firm’s Vienna office, an appointment that will take effect as of May 1, 2016.

Pachinger has spent his entire career with Freshfields, which he joined in 2002 after obtaining his LL.M. from Boston University. He received his Magister juris from the the University of Linz in 2001 and a Doctor juris from that same school in 2002. Recently he has advised Vienna-based Nabriva Therapeutics’ on its IPO in the United States (as reported by CEE Legal Matters on October 6 2015), KA Finanz on its EUR 1 billion bond insurance (as reported by CEE Legal Matters on August 18, 2015), and C.A.T. oil AG on safeguarding its strategic interests in the face of an unclear takeover bid (as reported by CEE Legal Matters on November 24, 2014).

Pachinger’s promotion was part of Freshfields’ global promotion round, which included a total of 16 lawyers world-wide, though Pachinger was the only CEE lawyer included.

Speaking of the promotions, Edward Braham, Senior Partner, commented: ‘It gives us great pleasure to welcome these talented individuals to the partnership. Their outstanding qualities will help us strengthen our market-leading offering and continue to enhance our global business.”

The Samardzic, Oreski & Grbovic firm has advised Lundin Mining Corporation in connection with its USD 262.5 million purchase of Freeport-McMoRan’s shares in the Timok project in eastern Serbia, payable in stages upon the achievement of key development milestones. Cassels Brock was global counsel to Lundin, and Davis Polk advised Freeport-McMoRan on the deal.

The Timok project is currently owned 55% by Freeport-McMoRan and 45% by Reservoir Minerals Inc. The transaction, which is expected to close in the second quarter of 2016, is subject to Reservoir’s right of first refusal, as well as other customary closing conditions.

Lundin Mining Corporation is a diversified Canadian base metals mining company with operations in Chile, the USA, Portugal, and Sweden, primarily producing copper, nickel, and zinc. In addition, Lundin Mining holds a 24% equity stake in the Tenke Fungurume copper/cobalt mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in the Freeport Cobalt Oy business, which includes a cobalt refinery located in Kokkola, Finland. Freeport-McMoRan is a U.S.-based natural resource company with a global portfolio of mineral assets, significant oil and gas resources, and a growing production profile.

The Timok project is currently centered on the development of the Cukaru Peki deposit located within the Brestovac-Metovnica mineral license. The project contemplates the development of a high grade massive and semi-massive sulphide deposit and conceptually, an underlying deep seated copper-gold porphyry deposit. According to SOG, the project “is expected to enhance Lundin Mining Corporations’s long term copper growth pipeline.”

SOG’s team working on the transaction included Partner Milan Samardzic and Associates Igor Radovanovic, Rastko Pavlovic, and Ana Vesovic.

The New York-based Davis Polk team consisted of Partner Marc Williams and Associates Daniel Brass, Darren Schweiger, and Arthi Sridharan. Partner Kathleen Ferrell and Associate Anne McGinnis provided tax advice, and Counsel Susan Kennedy and Associate Gregory Goldman provided real estate advice. Counsel Betty Moy Huber and Associate Michael Comstock provided environmental advice. 

Editor’s Note: After this article was published Cassels Brock noted that “the transaction is an agreement to acquire an interest rather than a purchase at this time,” and informed CEE Legal Matters that its team included Partners Mark Bennett, Cathy Mercer, and Joan Beck, and Associate Afzal Hasan.

Noerr has advised Allianz Real Estate on the establishment of a 50:50 joint venture with the real estate developer VGP.  Noerr reports the transaction value as more than EUR 500 million, and says that the joint venture was set up “to bundle the assets of projects developed by VGP in Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary.”

Noerr’s team was led by Dusseldord-based Partner Christoph Brenzinger, and Berlin-based Partners Tibor Fedke and Dr. Christoph Spiering. Other Partners involved in the matters included Bjorn Paulsen in Berlin/Moscow, Barbara Kusak in Prague, Volker Bock in Dresden, Florian Ehrich in Berlin, Andreas Naujoks in Frankfurt, and Zoltan Nadasdy in Budapest. Also working on the matter were Associates Katrin Andra, Szilvia Andriska, Sonja Beier, Julia Gerzen, Petr Hrncir, Eva Kratochvilova, Elfi Lüdecke, Alexander Mühleisen, Nadine Schawe, Maximilian Schulte, Clemens Schonemann, Philipp Takjas, Milos Temel, and Martin Tupek.

Noerr did not respond to our inquiry about the identity of counsel for VGP on the matter.

Editor’s note: After this article was published, CEE Legal Matters learned that Belgian lead counsel for VGP was Argo BCVBA, with advice on Czech law provided by Kocian Solc Balastic (KSB) and Hungarian advice provided by the Kovacs Reti Szegheo law firm (KRS). The KSB team consisted of Partner Jiri Hornik and Advocate Alica Stagmannova. When contacted by CEE Legal Matters, KRS reported that its team included Partner Attila Kovacs and Senior Lawyer Andrea Egertz.