BDK Advokati, working with international legal counsel Allen & Overy, has announced that it acted as Serbian legal counsel to the lenders providing over EUR 400 million loan commitments for Vinci's concession agreement to take over the management of Belgrade's Nikola Tesla Airport, which closed on December 21, 2018.
Dentons and the Andric Law Office advised Vinci on the financing, while the state was advised by Orrick (as originally reported by CEE Legal Matters on April 9, 2018). The project, with a total cost of close to EUR 1 billion, is being developed by Vinci Airports Serbia d.o.o., a company owned by Vinci Airports SAS. Under the concession agreement with the Government of Serbia and AD Aerodrom Nikola Tesla, Vinci was granted the right to operate Serbia's national airport for 25 years.
According to BDK, the lenders included the IFC, EBRD, Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft (DEG), Societe de Promotion et de Participation pour la Cooperation Economique SA (Proparco), Banca IMI, Unicredit, Erste Group, Kommunalkredit, CIC, and Societe Generale.
The BDK team was led by Senior Partner Dragoljub Cibulic. The Finance team included Senior Partner Tijana Kojovic and Senior Associate Dragoljub Sretenovic. Advice on Construction law matters was provided by Partner Milan Dakic. Further support was provided by Attorneys at Law Janko Nikolic and Djordje Zejak and Junior Associate Igor Matic.
Editor's Note: After this article was published, Allen & Overy announced that its team was led by Paris-based Partner Driss Bererhi and London-based Partner Lorraine Bayliss, and by Paris-based Senior Counsel Rod Cork.
Subsequently, Austria's Graf & Pitkowitz announced that it had cooperated with Allen & Overy in advising the lenders on the financing of the operating agreement of Vinci Airports for Nikola Tesla Airport in Belgrade, and that the transaction closed on December 21, 2018. The Graf & Pitkowitz team was led by Senior Partner Nikolaus Pitkowitz.
