Karanovic & Partners, working with global lead counsel K&L Gates, has advised analytics company SAS Institute Inc on the acquisition of the Boemska technology company.

Paksoy, working with lead counsel Freshfields, has advised Belgium's Solvay S.A. chemical company on the sale of its North American and European amphoteric surfactant manufacturing business, including the tolling business in Turkey, to OpenGate Capital. Morgan Lewis acted as global counsel to Open Gate with Akol providing Turkish advice. 

Redcliffe Partners has advised US investors Aspect Energy and SigmaBleyzer — acting jointly through a special-purpose vehicle, Ukrainian Energy, L.L.C. — on an oil & gas production sharing agreement with the Republic of Ukraine. DLA Piper reportedly advised the Republic of Ukraine on the transaction.

Alibaba and Oath Inc., a subsidiary of Verizon operating under the Yahoo! brand, have appointed Karanovic & Partners as their data protection representatives in Serbia.

DLA Piper has advised Raspadskaya on its USD 920 million acquisition of Russian coal producer Yuzhkuzbassugol from EVRAZ that, the firm reports, "will lead to the creation of Russia’s largest and the world’s fifth largest coking coal company." Linklaters advised the seller on the deal.

Bondoc si Asociatii has advised independent electricity and gas supplier Restart Energy on its cooperation agreement with DC-based consulting and fund management company Interlink Capital Strategies to develop green energy projects worth USD 500 million in Romania and neighboring countries, and to launch the blockchain-based RED platform in the USA.

Baker McKenzie has advised Kelag on the acquisition of 25 power plants in France and Portugal from the RWE Group. Local expertise for Portugal was provided by the Portuguese law firm Abreu Advogados, while the Dusseldorf office of Clifford Chance advised the RWE Group on the deal.

Divjak, Topic, Bahtijarevic & Krka, working alongside Allen & Overy, has advised J&T Bank, the arranger on a public offering of senior secured bonds. 

Squire Patton Boggs has advised a banking consortium led by Banco Comercial Portugues, S.A. and Novo Banco, S.A. on financing for the acquisition of certain of Europoles Group’s European divisions by Metalogalva-Irmaos Silvas S.A., a member of the VigentGroup. Campos Ferreira, Sa Carneiro CS Associados was lead counsel to the bank consortium in Portugal and Herbert Smith Freehills advised on German law issues and documentation. PwC Legal and Telles Avogados reportedly advised the borrower on the deal.

Former Nagy & Trocsanyi Partner Viktoria Szilagyi has joined Lakatos Koves & Partners in Budapest.

Former Hogan Lovells Moscow Managing Partner Oxana Balayan has left the firm to found her own consultancy -- the Balayan I Group -- which is scheduled to open its doors in April, 2021.

Russian lawyer Maria Kobanenko has been promoted to Partner at Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners.

Former Counsel Yury Babichev has been promoted to Partner at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner.

Cosmin Libotean, Andra Mihalache, and Cristi Tudor have made Equity Partner at Musat & Asociatii in Romania.

Teodor Hnatec has left Mitel & Partners to co-found a new firm with Partner Ioana Hnatec: Hnatec Attorneys at Law.

Gergely Szabo has made Partner at Ban, S. Szabo & Partners Law Office in Budapest. In addition, the firm announced that it has changed its name to Ban, S. Szabo, Rausch & Partners Law Office.

K-B-K Kleibel Kreibich Bukovc Hirsch and the law firm of Leopold Hirsch have merged to form KBK Hirsch in Salzburg.

Arabella Eichinger, Andreas Natterer, and Michael Woller have been promoted to Equity Partner, Marcin Aslanowicz, Bojan Brezan, Vid Kobe, and Maximilian Lang have been promoted to Contract Partner, and Marko Frantar has been promoted to Local Partner as part of Schoenherr's recent promotion round.

JPM Partner Jelena Stankovic Lukic on full harmonization with international standards in this area, the obligations of providers of services, and the supervision on providers.

A fundamental change brought about with effect from 1 January 2021 by a major amendment to the Commercial Corporations Act was the long-awaited new setting of the monistic system of the joint stock company’s internal structure. We bring you an overview of the most significant changes and practical complications that arise in current practice.

At one of the last sessions, the Serbian Parliament adopted amendments to the tax laws governing the taxation of companies and natural persons, as well as general tax procedures. The main driver for the reform was the introduction of the taxation regime for digital assets and open-end and alternative investment funds.

On January 7th, 2021 the Rulebook on detailed conditions for submitting a request for temporary residence approval electronically entered into force.

When Google announced its $2.1 billion merger deal with the smartwatch and fitness-tracker company Fitbit last year (“Deal”), consumer advocacy and anti-trust regulators have expressed concerns over the proposed acquisition. As a consequence, in August last year the European Commission (“EC”) opened an in-depth investigation to assess whether the said merger is in line with the EU Merger Regulation.

In March 2020, the coronavirus crisis urged the Hungarian government to introduce extraordinary measures to mitigate the economic consequences. This led to a general moratorium for all retail and corporate financings until the end of 2020. As one of the last measures of 2020, the Hungarian government decided to prolong the moratorium due to the second wave of the pandemic.

Turkey and the United Kingdom (the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland ) (the “UK”) signed the Free Trade Agreement (the “FTA”) on December 29th, 2020 just before the UK exits European Union (the “EU”). The FTA, which came into force as of January 1st, 2021, ensures special trading terms for UK businesses, which can continue to export and import under preferential tariffs, compared with no agreement.

Since the Mining Law no. 85/2003 (“Mining Law”) entered into force on March 27, 2003, the economic and social environment in Romania has undergone a major evolution, marked by the increase of investments, especially with the accession to the European Union, in 2007. However, the legislation did not manage to keep up this fastened pace and the Romanian authorities are now trying to adjust the legal framework to the requirements of this continuously changing economic life. In this regard, after three years of debate in the Parliament, Law no. 275/2020 for amending and supplementing the Mining Law no. 85/2003 (“Law no. 275/2020”) entered into force on December 17, 2020.

On November 18, 2020, the General Court of the European Union (“General Court”) upheld the European Commission’s (“Commission”) decision, in which Letuvos geležnkela AB (“Lithuanian Railway”) (“LG”) was found to have abused its dominant position in the Lithuanian rail freight market by removing a section of a railway track used by its competitors. In its appeal to the General Court, LG had requested that the Commission’s decision be annulled or in the alternative, the amount of the fine be reduced. While upholding the Commission’s decision, the General Court did reduce the amount of the fine imposed by almost a third, taking into account the duration and gravity of the infringement.