Avellum has helped Ukrainian supermarket chain Furshet obtain merger control clearance from the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine for the acquisition by the Fozzy Group of control over Furshet’s retail assets.

Bondoc si Asociatii has advised Ireland's Tapbury (Management) Limited on the acquisition of a Romanian company that is developing a wind farm project with approximately 60 MW installed capacity on around 150 hectares of land in Dobrogea region. 

Zepos & Yannopoulos has advised Bain Capital Credit on its acquisition of a non-performing corporate loan portfolio from the National Bank of Greece.

DLA Piper has advised Elektrozavod Group, a Russian manufacturer of transformer equipment, on the RUB 30.5 billion sale of a 94.01% stake in JSC Elektrozavod and 100% in LLC Elektrokombinat to LLC Megapolis Invest, a joint venture between Sistema and Sberbank Investments. Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton advised the buyers on the deal.

Greenberg Traurig has advised Cyfrowy Polsat S.A. and Polkomtel sp. z o.o. on the sale of a 99.99% stake in subsidiary Polkomtel Infrastruktura sp. z o.o., to Cellnex Poland sp. z o.o., a subsidiary of European telecommunications infrastructure operator Cellnex Telecom.

JDP has helped a consortium of Budimex S.A., Tecnicas Reunidas SA, and Mitsubishi Power Europe GmbH settle a dispute with PGE GiEK S.A. involving a contract for the design and construction of a lignite power unit at Elektrownia Turow in Poland.

Dentons has advised Kommunalkredit Austria AG on its provision of a EUR 23 senior term loan to Green Genius in Lithuania. Binder Groesswang and Glimstedt reportedly advised Kommunalkredit in Austria and Lithuania, respectively.

Zepos & Yannopoulos has advised Alpha Bank on Project Galaxy, which it describes as "the second largest NPE securitization in Europe."

B2RLaw and Crido Legal have advised Eagle JVCo on its acquisition of a student housing portfolio involving two development sites in Poland. Linklaters also reportedly advised the buyer.

The Kapolyi law firm has helped Connecticut-based international brokerage company Interactive Brokers establish its Central European headquarters in Budapest.

Karanovic & Partners has advised precious and base metals explorer Adriatic Metals on the acquisition of the remaining 90% of the shares in Ras Metals, which holds exploration licenses for former silver-zinc-lead mines Kizevak and Sastavci, from Bulgaria-based Cuprum LTD and an unidentified Serbian individual. NKO Partners advised the sellers on the deal.

Linklaters has advised Cornerstone Partners, a corporate and real estate private equity investment manager, on a strategic joint venture with Crestyl Group, a Czech developer of multi-purpose real estate projects. Dentons reportedly advised Crestyl Group on the deal.

Longtime CMS Local Partner Maria Orlyk has succeeded Johannes Trenkwalder as Managing Partner of CMS Reich-Rohrwig Hainze's Kyiv office.

Former White & Case lawyer Simona Rapava has joined Slovakia's MCL Law Firm as Co-Head of Banking and Finance.

Polish lawyers Michal Bochowicz, Adam Kraszewski, and Karol Sokol have been promoted to Partner at Gessel.

In January 2021, Hungarian lawyer Gergely Juhasz launched Risque Finance Brokers – an independent financial services start-up offering risk management consulting services for the M&A sector.

Otilia Vilcu has become Partner at GNP Guia Naghi and Partners.

Former Zuric i Partneri lawyer Luka Vukelic has opened the Vukelic Law Office in Zagreb.

Former Kinstellar lawyers Selma Mujezinovic and Ksenija Sorajic Bakovic have left the firm to establish KSEL Advokati in Belgrade, Serbia. The founders will be supported by former Kinstellar colleague Una Draganic Vukovic.

Former Karanovic & Partners attorneys Luka Prelevic, Stefan Lucic, and Djordje Kuzmanovic have opened PLK Advokati for business in Podgorica.

Vincentiu Constantin has been made Managing Associate and Head of Dispute Resolution at Leroy si Asociatii in Romania.

BGP Litigation has launched a Life Sciences & Technology practice, to be led by Partner Alexander Panov, who is joining the firm from the Pepeliaev Group.

Alexander Panov, Head of the Pepeliaev Group's Life Sciences practice, will be leaving the firm.

Sait Eryilmaz, Head of Banking & Finance at Clifford Chance Turkey, has made Partner.

Back in September 2020, the Serbian Commission for Protection of Competition (the “Commission”), following an internal review of the market dynamics and dawn raids at key players, initiated a formal investigation against three major undertakings active in both wholesale and retail of consumer electronics – Roaming Electronics d.o.o., Tehnomanija d.o.o. and Comtrade Distribution d.o.o. The Commission had, per publicly available pricing information and upon review of comparative practice, cited concerns that the undertakings involved were acting in concert, as well by potentially enforcing a resale price maintenance policy.

The consequences of the pandemic are also leaving their mark on Ukraine. Ukraine’s GDP declined by 4.6% in 2020, compared to expected growth of 3.7% before the pandemic. However, unemployment has (officially) only risen from 9.0% to 9.9%, which may be related to the fact that a large proportion of the workers affected by redundancies were in the informal sector, i.e. not officially employed.

Why is a whistleblowing system necessary and how can it help you save your good reputation, organization, investments, and even your freedom?

After simplifying the procedure for VAT registration in 2020 (i.e. risk analysis by the taxpayer after VAT registration instead of on the submission date of application for VAT registration), the Romanian tax authorities approved another simplification of the VAT registration procedure at the beginning of this week.

Under the Croatian law, a foundation is a non-profit legal entity without any members, which includes assets permanently intended to serve a generally useful or charitable purpose on its own or through income it generates.

How the Covid-19 Pandemic and Technological Innovations affect the insurance and M&A Market. As we are all aware, the last year was challenging for almost all industries, including the insurance companies, which were inevitably affected by both COVID-19 pandemic and technological innovations, and now must face the forthcoming risks and challenges.

Current Law on Health Insurance (Official Gazette of RS no. 25/2019) has been applied since 11 April 2019. The Government of the Republic of Serbia prepared the amendments to this law which are currently in public debate, after which they will enter parliamentary procedure. The draft law stipulates several significant novelties that we will present in this article. If it is adopted, the application of the draft law amending the Law on Health Insurance (“the Law”) will start on 1 June 2021.

In the Czech Republic, persons who undergo Covid-19 vaccination have been given the opportunity to claim financial compensation from the state if the vaccination (or, more precisely, the medicinal product containing a vaccine) causes harm. The Czech Parliament adopted Act No. 569/2020 Sb., on the Distribution of Medicinal Products Containing a Vaccine for Covid-19 Vaccination and on Compensation for Harm Caused to Those Vaccinated by These Medicinal Products (“Act No. 569/2020 Sb.”), which allows such compensation. According to the explanatory memorandum, this measure aims to “facilitate compensation of those who get vaccinated if they are harmed by the vaccination, thereby also indirectly promoting interest in Covid-19 vaccination.”

The phenomenon of tax evasion is present all around the globe regardless of whether we look at “civilized” or developing countries, being one of the most widespread and notorious form of financial crimes, responsible for a significant part of the shadow economy.

Products imported from and exported to the UK became subject to customs duties as the UK withdrew from the European Union on 1 February 2020 and also left the EU customs union on 1 January 2021.

Good corporate governance contributes significantly to increasing company value and strengthening the confidence of investors. It has been promoted in Ukraine, as across the world, in the past few decades, and in March 2020, the Core Code of Corporate Governance, which was based on the work of over 50 Ukrainian and international experts, was adopted by the National Securities and Stock Market Commission of Ukraine (NSSMC).

Squeeze-out of minority shareholders is an important concept for joint stock companies in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). In the previous socialist system, many then-state-owned joint stock companies issued employee stocks as a form of partial privatization, leading to some companies having hundreds of minority shareholders with miniscule amounts of shares. This complicated the management of these companies, as majority ownership changed from state to private, since many small shareholders are unreachable, as they may be deceased or have relocated with unknown addresses. This situation often makes squeeze-outs essential for majority shareholders in order to efficiently manage these companies.