CEE Legal Matters
In-depth coverage of the news and newsmakers that shape Europe's emerging markets
In The Corner Office, we ask Managing Partners at law firms across Central and Eastern Europe about their backgrounds, strategies, and responsibilities. As key steps, requirements, and timeline for becoming a Partner may vary from firm to firm, this time we asked: Does your firm have a formal Partnership Track and if yes, what does it involve?
Baker McKenzie has advised Innova Capital on the facilities agreement with mBank and BNP Paribas Bank Polska to support the fund’s investment in R-GOL. CMS reportedly advised the banks.
CMS has advised the Czech consortium of Skoda Transportation and Skoda Vagonka on their successful participation in Metropoliten Sofia's BGN 134 million public procurement procedure for eight metro trains.
On August 14, 2023, Binder Groesswang announced that Macquarie Asset Management's acquisition of a significant minority stake in Best in Parking AG (reported by CEE Legal Matters on May 10, 2023) had closed.
BCGL has advised Bank Pekao on the financing for RiO Family Office’s acquisition PartyDeco. CMS advised PartyDeco and its founders Mikolaj Gabryel and Agnieszka Gabryel, while Deloitte Legal advised RiO Family Office on both the acquisition and the financing.
On August 1, 2023, Binder Groesswang announced that Semperit Aktiengesellschaft Holding's acquisition of the Austrian Rico Group (reported by CEE Legal Matters on May 9, 2023) had closed.
PHH and Dentons have advised Kommunalkredit on a EUR 37.5 million financing for the 63-megawatt Senyo photovoltaic plant in Hungary. CMS reportedly advised the project's commissioners, Green Source and Core Value Capital.
Former Allen & Overy Counsel Petra Mysakova has joined the Prague office of CMS as a Partner and Head of the local Banking and Finance team.
CMS has advised Global Financial Consulting on the sale of the 25-megawatt greenfield Chernogor photovoltaic project to US investor Bulgaria Solar. Spasov & Bratanov advised Bulgaria Solar. Varadinov & Co reportedly advised the other sellers, Totally Green and Ki Energy.
CMS has advised YGY Industries on the sale of the 229-megawatt St. George greenfield solar plant in Bulgaria's Silistra municipality to Rezolv Energy. Boyanov & Co and, reportedly, Clifford Chance advised Rezolv Energy.
Koutalidis, working with CMS, has advised the Olympia Group on the acquisition of the remaining stake in Triathlon Holding, via its subsidiary Sunlight Group.
Did You Know that a total of 14 partners at Bulgarian law firms have worked on multiple client matters in that country so far this year? That group is led by Boris Teknedzhiev of Tokushev & Partners, who has worked on five reported Bulgarian client matters in 2023.
Did You Know that 12 firms in Central and Eastern Europe worked on more than 16 client matters reported by CEE Legal Matters in the first half of the year? According to the Activity Rankings function of the CEELMDirect website, two firms worked on more than 40 client matters reported by CEE Legal Matters in the first six months of 2023: Schoenherr, which worked on 42, and Clifford Chance, which worked on 41.
For many years, we have witnessed how the laws of England and Wales were introduced in the Montenegrin financial legal system by the application of Loan and Market Association (LMA) templates in financing transactions. It was usually the lenders insisting on having the LMA standards in the loan agreement and for the laws of England and Wales to govern the loan agreement.
Before the introduction of the latest amendments to the Company Law of the Republic of North Macedonia (Company Law) on April 29, 2022, it stipulated that only loans provided by sole shareholders to their companies may be converted into share capital. The practice of conversion overseen by the Central Registry of North Macedonia (CRM) was strict. For example, loans taken over by the shareholder from the companies of the same group were considered ineligible for conversion.
In The Corner Office, we ask Managing Partners at law firms across Central and Eastern Europe about their backgrounds, strategies, and responsibilities. With the first quarter of 2023 wrapped up, we turned to the future and asked: In which practice area do you expect the most growth – in terms of work volume – in the next 12 months?
With ESG gradually coming into focus, companies, industries, and whole countries are looking to the TMT sector for guidance. CMS Ukraine Partner Olga Belyakova and CMS Bosnia and Herzegovina Counsel Sanja Voloder share their insights.
CMS Reich-Rohrwig Hainz has established a dedicated, separate competence center for English law – to serve its operations across CEE and SEE countries – with members including Vienna-based Partners Marcell Clark, Alexander Rakosi, and David Kohl and Solicitor Anna Freund.
CMS Sofia is a full-service law firm, the largest international law firm in Bulgaria and one of the largest providers of legal services in the local market as a whole. The breadth and depth of our practice means that our lawyers are specialised, with a level of specialisation that few of our competitors can match.
CMS Sofia is the Bulgarian branch of CMS, a top ten global legal and tax services provider with over 5000 lawyers in 43 countries and 78 offices across the world.
CMS entered the Bulgarian market as one of the first internationally active law firms in 2005 and is now among the most respected legal advisors in the country. We have 7 partners, 4 counsel and over 30 lawyers in our office in Sofia.
Our legal experts, who are rooted in Bulgaria’s local culture, can also draw on years of experience in foreign countries and are at home in several legal systems at once. We know the particularities of the local market just as well as the needs of our clients and combine both to achieve optimum solutions. Our lawyers are Bulgarian qualified and we also have English qualified experts – all of them regularly working on cross-border mandates.
In our work, we focus on M&A, Energy, Projects and Construction, Banking and Finance, Real Estate, Media, IP and IT law, Tax, Employment law, Competition, Procurement and any kind of Dispute resolution, including arbitration and mediation. What’s more, we also take care of the entire legal management of our clients’ projects.