DLA Piper has advised Panoptes Pharma co-founders Franz Obermayr and Stefan Sperl and other unspecified shareholders on the sale of 100% of the company to EyeGate Pharmaceuticals. Frotz Riedl in Austria and Burns & Levinson in the US reportedly advised the buyer.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has advised a consortium of Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, BNP Paribas, HSBC, and UniCredit on the placement of Qiagen NV’s USD 500 million convertible bond due in 2027 and the management of bondholder’s buyback of Qiagen's convertible bonds due in 2021.

Cerha Hempel has advised Worthington Cylinders GmbH, a designer and manufacturer of pressure vessels, on its acquisition of all of the shares in German PTEC Pressure Technology GmbH from its unidentified founder and sole shareholder. 

Cerha Hempel, working with Allen & Overy’s Amsterdam office, has advised Mississippi Ventures B.V. on the acquisition of 50% of the shares in Dutch retail chain Hema B.V. from the Ad Hoc Group. Loyens & Loeff advised the Ad Hoc Group on the deal, which is expected to close in the first quarter of this year, and De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek advised Hema.

Binder Groesswang has advised Raiffeisen Bank on the acquisition of several bank branches, including customer relationships, from Landes-Hypothekenbanken Steiermark AG. Saxinger, Chalupsky & Partner advised Landes-Hypothekenbanken Steiermark on the deal, which closed on January 1, 2021.

The Digital Markets Act proposal (DMA) is a collection of complex obligations imposed on certain digital service providers. We previously described the salient features of the DMA here. In this article we focus on the definition and designation of gatekeepers, the powers of the EC compared to Member States and the potential effects of the DMA initiative within CEE.

Clifford Chance’s Prague office has helped the Sazka Group obtain a EUR 640 million senior secured loan. Allen & Overy advised the unidentified lenders on the deal, along with, reportedly, the Bernitsas Law Firm in Greece, Georgiades & Pelides in Cyprus, and CMS Reich Rohrwig Hainz in Austria.

The fast-paced changes brought about by digital technologies continuously challenge the slow-moving legal framework of the European Union. The European Commission (EC) has long grappled with the ever-evolving practices of tech-companies. Some players, spawned from garages and dorm rooms not long ago, are now entrenched gatekeepers and generate issues enforcers simply lack tools to deal with.

Eisenberger & Herzog has advised Wien Energie GmbH on the acquisition of a 49% stake in Austria's Pongratzer Kogel, Herrenstein, and Zagersdorf wind farms from wind and solar farm operator Encavis AG. Taylor Wessing advised Encavis on the deal.

CMS has advised the UK's Poseidon Group and Belgium’s Mitiska Reim on the divestment of their entire portfolio of retail parks in Serbia to Austria’s Immofinanz AG. Tomic Sindjelic Groza reportedly advised Immofinanz on the deal.

Brandl & Talos and SMP’s Berlin office have advised System Industrie Electronic Holding on the acquisition of a 70.1% stake in Elektromotorenwerk Grunhain.

Former SCWP Schindhelm Partner Alice Meissner and former Skribe lawyer Bernhard Passin have joined forces to launch Meissner & Passin Attorneys, which will open its doors on January 1, 2021.

Schoenherr has advised UBS Europe SE on the sale of its onshore wealth management business in Austria to LGT Bank AG. The transaction remains subject to competition authority clearance.

Cerha Hempel and Hogan Lovells Dusseldorf have advised OMV on the sale of its filling station business in Germany to Britain's EG Group. Latham & Watkins reportedly advised EG Group on the deal, which remains subject to regulatory approval. 

Austria's CHG Czernich Rechtsanwalte has opened a branch in Vienna, led by lawyers Stefan Gutbrunner and Clemens Handl. The firm’s new office is located on the Universitatsring, right next to the Vienna Burgtheater.

Cerha Hempel has helped Germany's COSI Hospitality Group enter the Austrian hotel and apartment market. 

CMS’s Vienna office has advised joint lead managers BofA Securities, BNP Paribas, Erste Group, Goldman Sachs International, JP Morgan, and UBS on Erste Group Bank AG’s EUR 750 million issuance of undated fixed-to-fixed resettable notes. Wolf Theiss advised the issuer on the deal.

Eisenberger & Herzog has advised Krenhof AG on its merger with Pankl Racing Systems AG. Oberhammer advised Pankl Racing Systems on the merger.