Kocian Solc Balastik has advised Taiwan's Yeong Chin Machinery on the acquisition of a majority stake in Trimill.

Kocian Solc Balastik has advised Ronaldsay on the sale of Hampshire Green Point to Wood & Company. Glatzova & Co advised the buyers on the deal.

Noerr has advised Rebelle as the target company of a public takeover offer made by Lithuania's Vinted. Gernandt & Danielsson reportedly also advised Rebelle. Roschier and Hengeler Mueller reportedly advised Vinted.

Zamfirescu Racoti Vasile & Partners has advised Ana Hotels on a hotel management agreement with international group IHG Hotels & Resorts for the operation of the Athenee Palace hotel under the InterContinental Hotels & Resorts brand starting from 2023.

Nestor Nestor Diculescu Kingston Petersen and Dentons announced that Romgaz' acquisition of ExxonMobil subsidiary ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Romania Limited (reported by CEE Legal Matters on May 12, 2022) has now closed.

Filip & Company has advised RCS & RDS and its Digi Spain Telecom subsidiary on a EUR 128 million five-year term loan for investment purposes. Reportedly, Freshfields' offices in Spain and the Netherlands advised RCS & RDS as well. Clifford Chance reportedly advised the financing banks, with Spain's Banco Santander acting as agent. 

PRK Partners, working alongside Luther, has advised the shareholder of the I.G. Bauherin Group on its sale to US automotive supplier Lear Corporation. Mayer Brown reportedly advised the Lear Corporation.

Tuca Zbarcea & Asociatii has advised Mol Romania on the development, authorization, and opening of two new service stations on the A2 Motorway.

Paksoy has advised OLX Group's Letgo Otoplus on its acquisition of a 25% stake in Pilot Garage from its founders, the Emre family. Yonet Attorneys at Law reportedly advised the sellers. 

Fort Legal has advised Eften Capital on the acquisition of the Talino real estate project from Rewo. Walless advised the seller.

NKO Partners has advised CTP on yet another acquisition of land in Novi Sad, this time from the City of Novi Sad itself.

Noerr has advised Espira on the sale of Icon Communication Centres to Yoummday. Kinstellar advised the buyer.

Attorney Kirill Lezeiko has taken over as Head of Banking and Finance at PwC Legal Estonia from Co-Founder Viljar Kahari, effective August 1.

Schoenherr Head of Banking & Finance in the Czech Republic Ondrej Havlicek has been promoted to a Local Partner with the firm’s Czech office.

Former Partner and Co-Head of the Real Estate and Construction practice Ksenija Golubovic Filipovic has left Zivkovic Samardzic, as of August 1, 2022, to establish her own practice. She will continue to cooperate with the firm as a Consultant. Partner Uros Djordjevic will continue to lead the firm’s Real Estate and Construction practice.

Former Senior Managing Associate Diana Fejer has been promoted to Partner at the Deloitte Legal-affiliated firm Reff & Associates as of September 1, 2022.

Lithuania's SPC Legal and Wint have joined forces to form a new law firm: Noor.

Former Counsel Vitaliy Odzhykovskyy has been promoted to Partner with Sayenko Kharenko.

Former Junior Partner Stefan Adametz has been promoted to Equity Partner with Fellner Wratzfeld & Partner.

Hugh Owen was appointed to the role of Head of Legal at PwC Central and Eastern Europe.

EY Romania affiliated law firm Bancila Diaconu si Asociatii Managing Partner Radu Diaconu has become a Partner with EY Romania, within the Tax and Legal consultancy department.

Head of Norton Rose Fulbright has appointed Partner Yianni Cheilas as the new Greek offices head from August 1, 2022. He takes over from Partner Dimitri Sofianopoulos, who will now continue with Norton Rose Fulbright as a Senior Consultant.

Moral & Partners has announced that former Baker McKenzie Turkey affiliate Esin Attorney Partnership Partner Sertac Kokenek has joined its team as Senior Partner and Head of Advisory. With Partners Efe Kinikoglu and Serkan Pamukkale also elevated to Name Partners, the firm rebranded to Moral, Kinikoglu, Pamukkale, Kokenek Attorney Partnership.

Gladei & Partners has promoted Iulian Pasatii to Partner – the first Partner appointment in the firm's history. 

The first half of 2022 has not (yet) yielded such high profile deals as seen in 2021 (like Printful becoming the first Latvian “unicorn”) but there has been a steady trickle of transactions following the larger wave of 2021.

The Laws of Ukraine "On Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine Regarding Priority Reform Measures in the Field of Town-Planning” No. 2254-IX, dated 12 May 2022 (“Law 2254”) and "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine Regarding Regulatory Peculiarities of Land Relations under Martial Law” No. 2247-IX, dated 12 May 2022 (“Law 2247”, hereinafter together with Law 2254 – “Laws”) came into force more than a month ago.

Functioning in an information society generates a number of challenges that both economic operators and private citizens must face. The foundation of a healthy system relies on the ability to sift true information from false, which today is becoming increasingly difficult in an increasingly complex and technological world.

The Law on whistleblowers’ protection was approved on 29 June 2022 by the Chamber of Deputies. 

New Covid regulations are in effect from 1 August 2022, raising many questions for employers. The biggest changes are that quarantine for SARS-COV-2 infected persons is no longer mandatory according to Austrian law and the reinstatement of the risk group exemption ("Risikogruppenfreistellung").

Bosnia and Herzegovina does not have a foreign investment screening regime comparable to those now emerging in the European Union in light of the EU FDI Screening Regulation. However, it operates an authorisation system covering the defence and media sectors.

On 13 October 2022, the Act amending the Commercial Companies Code and certain other acts (“Act”) will come into force. Companies, especially those operating under a management agreement between a parent company and a subsidiary, will have to reorganise their structures to some extent in order to comply with the new regulations.

Grid connection in Romania is mainly regulated by ANRE Order no. 59/2013 approving the public grid connection regulation (the “Connection Regulation”), which has already been amended twice in 2022 (under ANRE Orders no. 17/2022 and 81/2022) and will soon be amended for a third time. Hence, the legal regime governing grid connection is quite a carousel of changes and reshapes.

The resilience of the transactions market and the trust of investors in the Baltic region has proved remarkable, although figures show a 15% decrease in global mid-market M&A deals (according to the Refinitiv published M&A Review of the first half of 2022). Despite the Ukraine war and mounting global challenges the deal flow, although at a much calmer pace, continues and remains promising for the second half of the year. Looking back on the first six months, COBALT experts highlight the main trends in each of the Baltic countries.

Romanian DPA case studies – our top 5 picks.

Despite being already recognized as one of the leading European countries regarding foreign investments, the Republic of Serbia continues its active policy of attracting foreign investors. The direct consequence of the substantial increasement in investments in a plethora of different fields is the fact that there are even more and more foreign natural and legal persons willing to invest in producing audiovisual works on the territory of the Republic of Serbia. The Republic of Serbia recognized this trend and took measures to improve the environment for investing in audiovisual works within the so-called creative industries (e.g. films, short films, TV shows, documentaries, animated films, etc. ‘’Industry’’).

The Turkish Law No. 6563 on the Regulation of Electronic Commerce (“E-Commerce Law”) adopted in 2014, basically regulates the responsibilities of e-commerce service providers ("Service Provider") and e-commerce intermediary service providers (“Intermediary Service Provider”), the contracts made over electronic communication tools and their obligations to provide information based on electronic commerce, and the sanctions that can be applied. The E-Commerce Law also aims to provide an environment of trust in the electronic commerce market, protect personal data, the confidentiality of communication, and protect consumers in their transactions in the electronic commerce Marketplaces (“Marketplace”).