Herbst Kinsky has advised PhagoMed Biopharma's shareholders on the sale of the company to BioNTech.

Vukmir & Associates and Kapolyi, working together with Herbert Smith Freehills’ Paris office, have advised Engie on the spin-off and sale of its construction and services business to Bouygues. White & Case's Paris office advised the Engie board of directors. Reportedly, Wolf Theiss, AKK, and Python Avocats also advised Engie in Austria, the Czech Republic, and Switzerland, respectively.

BPV Huegel has advised Microsoft venture fund M12 and Point72 Ventures on their USD 20 million investment into Blackshark.ai. KPMG Law advised Blackshark. Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe reportedly advised M12 as well.

Radovanovic Stojanovic & Partners and Cerha Hempel have advised AIK Banka, Gorenjska Banka, and Agri Europe Cyprus on their acquisition of Sberbank Europe’s shares in six CEE banks. Noerr advised the buyers on Hungarian law, while Maric & Co, Zuric and Partners, Tos & Partners, and Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners reportedly advised the buyers on Bosnian, Croatian, Slovenian, and Russian matters, respectively.

Schoenherr has advised European Rail Rent on its partnership with new co-shareholder Antin Infrastructure Partners. Bird & Bird advised ERR in Germany, while Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer advised Antin on the deal.

On 2 November 2021 the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA) published its long-awaited amended Online Identification Regulation (Online-Identifikationsverordnung, "Online-IDV"). The FMA herewith enables financial service providers subject to the KYC obligations of the Financial Market Anti-Money Laundering Law (Finanzmarkt-Geldwäschegesetz; "FM-GwG") to use purely biometrical processes for remote identification of new customers. Biometrical identification processes are all procedures for online customer identification where the entire or parts of the online identification are carried out by an automated electronic procedure without the involvement of employees – there is no need for personal contact in the whole remote identification process anymore.

Schoenherr has announced the appointments of Austria-based Miriam Simsa, Bulgaria-based Alexandra Doytchinova and Czech Republic-based Vladimir Cizek to Equity Partners. The firm also promoted Austria-based Dominik Hofmarcher and Slovakia-based Sona Hekelova to Partners.

Cerha Hempel has advised Energy Exchange Austria and its cooperation with CCP Austria on the restructuring of the clearing of spot market trading in electric power products on the Vienna Stock Exchange and on the transfer of the central counterparty function from EXAA to CCP Austria.

PHH, working with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, has advised the shareholders of life sciences company Szabo-Scandic Handelsgmbh on its sale to the Nordic BioSite Group. Wolf Theiss and White & Case advised Nordic BioSite on the deal.

PHH has advised German digital transformation company Sidion on its acquisition of a 65% stake in the Austrian-based Hillside IT consulting group.

Cerha Hempel has advised Abrdn on the acquisition of a residential project in Vienna from the Innsbruck-based project consortium Moser Immobilien and Bauwerk Immobilien. Grama Schwaighofer Vondrak advised the sellers.

Gas is of particular economic importance for Austria. In addition to production, infrastructure (including the Baumgarten gas hub), transportation, trade, and supply-secure coverage of gas demand play a major role. Yearly demand of roughly 80 to 90 terawatt-hours, constant over the last ten years, is generated by the manufacturing and energy sectors, non-energy consumption, agriculture, private households, power plants as conversion applications, transport, and the service sector. With a share of about 15%, gas also plays an important role in Austria’s electricity generation, primarily by providing flexible capacities that can be utilized at short notice to stabilize the power grid.

CMS has advised plastic packaging and recycling company Alpla on its acquisition of the Wolf Plastics Group. Binder Groesswang advised the sellers on the deal.

Brandl Talos has advised TriLite Technologies on its EUR 8 million Series A financing round.

Hengeler Mueller is advising Austria's Greiner on obtaining the European Commission's merger control approval in relation to its conditional voluntary public takeover offer to acquire a majority of Recticel shares, which was officially announced on October 06, 2021.

Schoenherr has advised Swiss investment company Nice & Green on the up to EUR 5.4 million convertible note funding program for Vienna Stock Exchange-listed Marinomed Biotech. Herbst Kinsky advised Marinomed.

Former Amsterdam-based Park Now Group General Counsel, Chief Risk and Compliance Michael Czermak has joined Casinos Austria Managing Director Legal Affairs in Vienna.

According to a recently published ruling, the German Federal Labour Court says you can. Here is how.