Cobalt has helped AB Linas Agro Group with its application for approval by the Competition Council of Latvia for its acquisition of the Kauno Grudai group. 

Aequo has helped Ukrainian agro-industrial group Rostok-Holding obtain merger clearance from the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine for the acquisition of Novgorod-Seversky Elevator, Novgorod-Seversky Agrarian Investments, and Demor.

CMS has advised a syndicate of banks led by mandated lead arranger ING Bank N.V. in relation to the extension of a pre-export facility for Ukraine’s Kernel Group.

Glatzova & Co has helped Winstor Investicni Spolecnost, a manager and administrator of investment funds, get its investment operating license extended by the Central Bank of the Czech Republic.

CMS has advised BeeIN on its successful participation in a two-phase public tender to obtain access to 5G frequencies organized by the Communications Networks and Services Agency of the Republic of Slovenia.

Walless has helped Funderbeam obtain an investment firm license from the Estonian Financial Supervision Authority, allowing the company to continue operations in the European Economic Area after Brexit.

Former Hogan Lovells Partner Rafal Grochowski has brought his team to Domanski Zakrzewski Palinka.

Former CMS Partner and Head of Finance Mark Segall has joined Dentons's Banking and Finance team in Warsaw.

Former White & Case lawyer Simona Rapava has joined Slovakia's MCL Law Firm as Co-Head of Banking and Finance.

Former Hogan Lovells Partner Rafal Grochowski has brought his team to Domanski Zakrzewski Palinka.

Debevoise & Plimpton has advised Ozon Holdings PLC, a Russian e-commerce platform, on the issue of USD 750 million senior unsecured bonds due 2026, convertible into American depositary shares, representing ordinary shares of Ozon.

On January 29, 2020, CEE Legal Matters reported that BBH had advised the Czech-Moravian Development Bank on the launch of its IPO Fund and signing of a cooperation agreement with the Prague Stock Exchange to support new entities wishing to list on its START market. CEEIHM spoke with Martin Potucek, Chief Executive Officer at Czech-Moravian Development Bank, to learn more about the matter.

Cobalt has helped AB Linas Agro Group with its application for approval by the Competition Council of Latvia for its acquisition of the Kauno Grudai group. 

Avellum has successfully defended the interests of PJSC A/T B.A.T.-Prilucky Tobacco Company — the Ukrainian subsidiary of British American Tobacco — in a dispute against the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine. The case was brought before the Northern Commercial Court of Appeal in Kyiv.

Back in September 2020, the Serbian Commission for Protection of Competition (the “Commission”), following an internal review of the market dynamics and dawn raids at key players, initiated a formal investigation against three major undertakings active in both wholesale and retail of consumer electronics – Roaming Electronics d.o.o., Tehnomanija d.o.o. and Comtrade Distribution d.o.o. The Commission had, per publicly available pricing information and upon review of comparative practice, cited concerns that the undertakings involved were acting in concert, as well by potentially enforcing a resale price maintenance policy.

Act Ban & Karika has helped Swiss-based Elpro, a manufacturer of environmental monitoring solutions for pharmaceutical, life science, biotech, and health care industries, establish its Hungarian office and implement relevant GDPR compliance procedures. 

Kinstellar has helped the Czech Banking Credit Bureau with an audit of its personal data processing activities, which the bureau was carrying out as the data processor of the Client Information Bank Register.

Serbia's JPM Jankovic, Popovic, Mitic has helped Xella implement GDPR best practices.

Kinstellar has advised EAG on its acquisition of Cebia. Simkova & Partneri advised the unnamed seller on the deal.

Rymarz Zdort has advised BIF IV Europe Holdings Limited, an affiliate of Brookfield Renewable Partners, on its unspecified investment in Polish renewable energy producer Polenergia S.A.

Orrick and Kondracki Celej have advised EPAM Systems Inc on its acquisition of Salesforce.Com’s cloud consulting partner, PolSource, to ramp up its growing Salesforce abilities and development into new markets. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Rymarz Zdort has advised BIF IV Europe Holdings Limited, an affiliate of Brookfield Renewable Partners, on its unspecified investment in Polish renewable energy producer Polenergia S.A.

The Bucharest office of Kinstellar has helped Ontario Power Generation, acting through its Canadian Nuclear Partners subsidiary, to enter into a EUR 3.156 million contract to refurbish Reactor 1 of the Cernavoda nuclear power plant from Romania’s S.N. Nuclearelectrica S.A.

Bondoc si Asociatii has advised Ireland's Tapbury (Management) Limited on the acquisition of a Romanian company that is developing a wind farm project with approximately 60 MW installed capacity on around 150 hectares of land in Dobrogea region. 

Given the importance of human rights in general and children rights in particular, the European Union (the “EU”) has considered that the international treaties do not offer an adequate level of protection of minors during criminal trials, and therefore, a common legal framework is necessary.

Lesnodorski, Slusarek i Wspolnicy, working pro bono, has successfully represented journalist Polish Justyna Sliwowska-Mroz in her claims that an advertisement by Poland's Law and Justice party had violated her rights.

Cobalt, acting pro bono, has represented the "Association of LGBT and Their Friends Mozaika" as amicus curiae before the Constitutional Court of Latvia regarding the right of same-sex couples to parental leave.

On November 18, 2020, CEE Legal Matters reported that Gugushev & Partners had helped Fr. Lurssen Werft GmbH & Co KG, part of Northern Germany's Lurssen shipyard group, win a public tender for the supply of two multipurpose modular patrol vessels to the Bulgarian Navy. CEEIHM spoke with Dirk Malgowski, Managing Director at Fr. Lurssen Werft, to learn more about the matter.

Otilia Vilcu has become Partner at GNP Guia Naghi and Partners.

The Tallinn office of Sorainen has advised Skoda on its agreement to sell six trains to Eesti Liinirongid, operating under the Elron brand name, with an additional option to buy ten more in coming years. Eesti Liinirongid was advised on the procurement process by Blessner.

Acting on behalf of firm client CD Land Contact LLC, Russia's Intellectual Capital law firm has initiated bankruptcy proceedings against Fortes LLC.

Recently, in the second half of January 2021, a public debate was held with regards to the Draft of the Law on Amendments to the Bankruptcy Law (hereinafter: "the Amendments"). If all the changes proposed by the Amendments were to be summarized, what they altogether aim at in practice is to improve the efficiency and transparency of bankruptcy procedure as well as to reduce the costs of the entire process, which in practice has so far proved to be one of the largest problems for creditors and other interested parties in this procedure.

Former Karanovic & Partners attorneys Luka Prelevic, Stefan Lucic, and Djordje Kuzmanovic have opened PLK Advokati for business in Podgorica.

Polish lawyers Michal Bochowicz, Adam Kraszewski, and Karol Sokol have been promoted to Partner at Gessel.

Former Zuric i Partneri lawyer Luka Vukelic has opened the Vukelic Law Office in Zagreb.

Former Karanovic & Partners attorneys Luka Prelevic, Stefan Lucic, and Djordje Kuzmanovic have opened PLK Advokati for business in Podgorica.

NNDKP has advised Clinica Victoria on the establishment of a partnership with EquiLiant Capital, an investment fund financed by Paval Holding. PIM & Associates advised EquiLiant on the deal.

On January 15, 2021, CEE Legal Matters reported that BDK Advokati had advised Frontier Pharma and the Baystone investment group on the acquisition of Zdravlje Leskovac, a Serbian pharmaceutical company owned by Actavis, which is itself a subsidiary of Israel's Teva. CEEIHM spoke with Kiren Naidoo, Co-Founder and Managing Director at Frontier Pharma, to learn more about the acquisition.

Polish lawyers Michal Bochowicz, Adam Kraszewski, and Karol Sokol have been promoted to Partner at Gessel.

Bojanovic & Partners has successfully represented football player Nemanja Nikolic in CAS arbitration between him and Israeli club Hapoel Tel Aviv. 

Mitroi, Damian, Serbu & Associates and Ireland's Crowley Millar Solicitors have successfully represented Romanian airline Just-Us Air in arbitration with Air Moldova, the largest Moldovan airline.

Former Zeiler Floyd Zadkovich Partner Markus Schifferl has returned to BPV Huegel as Co-Head of Dispute Resolution.

Mitroi, Damian, Serbu & Associates and Ireland's Crowley Millar Solicitors have successfully represented Romanian airline Just-Us Air in arbitration with Air Moldova, the largest Moldovan airline.

The Tallinn office of Sorainen has advised Skoda on its agreement to sell six trains to Eesti Liinirongid, operating under the Elron brand name, with an additional option to buy ten more in coming years. Eesti Liinirongid was advised on the procurement process by Blessner.

DWF Poland has helped Enter Air obtain PLN 287 million in financing under the Polish Development Fund's Financial Shield Programme for Large Companies.

On November 18, 2020, CEE Legal Matters reported that Gugushev & Partners had helped Fr. Lurssen Werft GmbH & Co KG, part of Northern Germany's Lurssen shipyard group, win a public tender for the supply of two multipurpose modular patrol vessels to the Bulgarian Navy. CEEIHM spoke with Dirk Malgowski, Managing Director at Fr. Lurssen Werft, to learn more about the matter.

KLC has advised SRH Marine SAIT on its agreement with Tototheo Maritime to form a new jointly-owned company, MAR360. 

Akol Law has advised Global Ports Holding on the sale of 99.9% of its stake in Port Akdeniz to QTerminals. Kolcuoglu Demirkan Kocakli, reportedly working with Clyde & Co as the coordinator on the deal, advised QTerminals.

Brandl Talos has advised Btov Partners on its EUR 1 million investment in Vienna-based startup Visplore. Herbst Kinsky advised Visplore on the deal.

Cobalt has advised venture capital fund Karma Ventures on its follow-on investment in Vilnius-based CGTrader, which was advised by Sorainen. Evli Growth Partners, Karma Ventures, and LVV Group participated in the round, in which CGTrader raised USD 9.5 million.

CMS has advised PFR Ventures on its investment in private equity funds British Apax Partners, French PAI Partners, and Poland-based Avallon MBO. The total value of the investment, which also included another, unnamed, company, is PLN 340 million.

Longtime CMS Local Partner Maria Orlyk has succeeded Johannes Trenkwalder as Managing Partner of CMS Reich-Rohrwig Hainze's Kyiv office.

Baker McKenzie has advised the Goal Number Seven association on the launch of the international renewable energy certificates system in Russia. The firm provided its services on a pro bono basis.

Gowling WLG has become a pro bono legal advisor to the Multimedia Art Museum in Moscow.

On February 5, 2021, CEE Legal Matters reported that Penteris had advised a joint venture formed by Rida Development Corp and Mack Real Estate Group on its acquisition of the Jerozolimskie Business Park in Warsaw from A&T Holdings. CEEIHM spoke with Rafal Nowicki, CEO at Apollo-Rida, to learn more about the deal.

Ellex Raidla has advised SG Capital Partners Fund I on the acquisition of a 90,000 square meter logistics complex near the Plavinieki and Dreilini districts in Riga by acquiring shares in SIA Beinits and SIA Balt Cargo Solutions from a group of private investors. The sellers were reportedly advised by Rasa, Esenvalds, and Radzins. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The Warsaw office of Clifford Chance has advised Polish public construction company Budimex S.A. on the PLN 1.5 billion sale of its Budimex Nieruchomosci subsidiary to Cornerstone Partners and Crestyl Real Estate. Linklaters advised the buyers on the deal.

After simplifying the procedure for VAT registration in 2020 (i.e. risk analysis by the taxpayer after VAT registration instead of on the submission date of application for VAT registration), the Romanian tax authorities approved another simplification of the VAT registration procedure at the beginning of this week.

The phenomenon of tax evasion is present all around the globe regardless of whether we look at “civilized” or developing countries, being one of the most widespread and notorious form of financial crimes, responsible for a significant part of the shadow economy.

Hungarian National Tax and Customs Authority regularly publishes the list of major tax defaulters for failing to fulfil their tax obligations in Hungary. The list also contains private data of the defaulters, including, inter alia, information on tax arrears and debts and their home address. In a recent case (L.B. v. Hungary – 36345/16), European Court of Human Rights concluded no violation and confirmed the approach of Hungarian tax authority as justified.

Brandl Talos has advised Btov Partners on its EUR 1 million investment in Vienna-based startup Visplore. Herbst Kinsky advised Visplore on the deal.

Orrick and Kondracki Celej have advised EPAM Systems Inc on its acquisition of Salesforce.Com’s cloud consulting partner, PolSource, to ramp up its growing Salesforce abilities and development into new markets. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Glodeanu & Partners, working with the Nivaro Law Firm, has advised Impero Software on the acquisition of Danish-based Netop, which has a strong presence in Romania through two of its subsidiaries, from Consolidated Holdings A/S.

On January 12, 2021, the Supreme Court of the Slovak Republic confirmed the verdict delivered by the Specialized Criminal Court in February 2020 on the forging of four promissory notes of private television broadcaster TV Markiza. Businessman Marian Kocner and former minister Pavol Rusko, a onetime owner of TV Markíza, were accused of forging the promissory notes and using them to demand EUR 69 million from the television station. Both Kocner and Rusko were convicted of forging the promissory notes and were each sentenced to 19 years’ imprisonment. Dentons' Litigation team in Bratislava represented TV Markiza in the case.

Magnusson has represented special purpose companies Envst United Action, KTZL Action Group, MNTHR Action Group, and more than 2000 international and local investors in their fraud claims against three crowdfunding platforms before a court in Estonia.

The Circuit Court of Tallinn, acting on a motion made by Magnusson Estonia’s Attorney-at-Law Martin Hirvoja, has ordered the Estonian Central Prosecution Office to initiate a criminal investigation into the leak of files from the Danske Bank money-laundering case.