Kinstellar, working alongside Linklaters, has advised the Belgian KBC Group on its EUR 610 million acquisition of the United Bulgarian Bank and Bulgaria's Interlease leasing company from the National Bank of Greece.
Once completed, the acquisition will make KBC the biggest bank-insurance group in Bulgaria, in terms of assets, with a market share of approximately 11%. KBC already owns CIBANK and DZI (an insurer) in Bulgaria, and through this transaction it will also enter the leasing business in the country.
Kinstellar acted as the main legal adviser to KBC on the transaction, including the due diligence process and the negotiation of the transaction documents. Linklaters’ offices in Brussels and London advised on EU regulatory matters, and were also involved in the negotiations of the share purchase agreement.
The Kinstellar team was lead by Partners Diana Dimova and Anthony O’Connor and included Counsel Antonia Mavrova, Of Counsel Desislava Fessenko, Managing Associates Svilen Issaev, Mladen Minev and Nina Tsifudina, and Associates Stiliyana Ivanova, Vanya Shubelieva, Plamena Deliyska, and Vladimir Sotirov, among others.
The identity of the firm advising the sellers was not disclosed.
Editor's Note: After this article was published Boyanov & Co. announced that it and Freshfields had advised the National Bank of Greece on the deal. The Boyanov & Co. team consisted of Senior Counsel Svetlina Kortenska and Associate Ilina Maltzeva.
Subsequently, in October 2017, Kinstellar announced that it had assisted KBC Group in obtaining competition authority approval for the deal.
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