Hogan Lovells has advised the Management Board of mBank S.A. — a unit of Commerzbank — on its conditional November 27, 2017 agreement to sell an organized part of its mFinanse unit to Phoebe IVS. Linklaters advised the buyers on the deal.
The sale, which expected to close in the first quarter of 2018, will be carried out in two stages: The first involves the sale and transfer of mBank unit Latona SA to Phoebe IVS, after which mFinance will sell and transfer an organized part of its business to Latona. According to Hogan Lovells, the expected maximum value of remuneration is approximately PLN 520 million (USD 147 million), "out of which the remuneration, in the amount of approximately PLN 465 million, will be recognized over a period of 15 years."
The buyer will finance the deal with funding provided by Ireland-registered Purple Star Receivables Funding DAC, with support from a syndicate of institutional investors. Purple Star Receivables Funding and Indigo Agencies Holdings Ltd. will act as guarantors and are parties to the agreement. Both Phoebe IVS and Indigo Agencies Holdings are affiliated with Indigo Group, which includes Indigo Underwriters, a company licensed in the U.K.
The Hogan Lovells team was led by Partner Beata Balas-Noszczyk and included Cuonsels Tomasz Grygorczuk, Piotr Skurzynski, Senior Associates Bartosz Romanowski, Maryla Surowiec, Associates Karol Ruszkowski, Agnieszka Scipio del Campo, and Mateusz Mazurkiewicz, and Lawyers Kamila Mroz and Tomasz Pietrzak. Hogan Lovells Partner Andrzej Debiec and Counsel Dorota Walerjan provided tax advice.
The Linklaters team was led by Warsaw Corporate Partner Daniel Cousens and included Counsel Marcin Schulz, Managing Associates Agnieszka Maj-Zuk and Marta Bleszynska, and Associates Klaudia Owsianka and Lukasz Burakowski, assisted by London-based Partner Olga Petrovic and Managing Associate Sam Mahboubian.
