On November 1, 2017, Lilyana Pavlova, the Minister in charge of the Bulgarian Presidency of the EU Council and Boyanov & Co. Managing Partner Borislav Boyanov, the President of the Association of the Honorary Consuls in Bulgaria and Honorary Consul of Malta, signed a Memorandum of Cooperation for the forthcoming Bulgarian Presidency of the European Union. 

Boyanov & Co. had supported the UK-listed company BSP PLC on its acquisition of a historic building at the corner of Rakovski Str. and Ivan Vazov Str. in the heart of Sofia.

The commercial legal markets of Central & Eastern Europe didn’t appear automatically. They didn’t develop in a vacuum. They were formed, shaped, and led, by lawyers – visionary, hard-working, commercially-minded, and client-focused individuals pulling the development of CEE’s legal markets along behind them as they labored relentlessly for their clients, their careers, their futures. 

Hristov & Partners has promoted Biliana Shagova to Partner.

DGKV has acted as local counsel to the Export-Import Bank of China with regard to a EUR 50 million loan facility extended to the Bulgarian Development Bank for on-lending to customers in the form of mid or short-term trade financing transactions.

DGKV has advised Fund Manager of Financial Instruments in Bulgaria EAD on the structuring and launching of a EUR 100 million public procurement procedure to select financial intermediaries for equity and quasi-equity investments in Bulgarian seed and start-up companies.

CMS has successfully defended renewable energy client Astronergy (part of the Chinese energy group Chint) against a commercial claim brought by a former developer over the acquisition of the photovoltaic plant Cherveniakovo-4MWp in Bulgaria.

DGKV’s real estate team has advised NEPI Rockcastle on the September 21, 2017 acquisition by its subsidiary NEPI Project Two EOOD of Bulfeld EOOD — the owner of the Paradise Center shopping center in Sofia — from Bul Dom OOD. Penkov, Markov & Partners advised the sellers on the deal, which remains subject to approval of the Bulgarian competition watchdog.

Kinstellar’s Sofia antitrust team has advised the Linxens Group on the merger filing leading to the eventual approval by the Bulgarian Commission on Protection of Competition of its acquisition of the SIT Division of the Smartrac Group and on the antitrust aspects of the implementation of the deal.

Bulgaria's Dimitrov, Petrov & Co. has joined the SELA law firm alliance.

In The Corner Office, we invite Senior and Managing Partners at law firms from across the region to share information about their careers, management styles, and strategies. For this issue, we asked them to describe their least favorite part of their jobs. 

CMS has advised Axel Johnson International, a privately owned Swedish industrial group that is part of Axel Johnson, a prominent Nordic trading group, on its acquisition of a majority stake in the IOW Group, which has a presence in Poland, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, and the Baltic countries. The sellers were reportedly advised by DLA Piper.

4th and 5th of October 2017 in Casablanca, Morocco

Kambourov & Partners has successfully represented Iberdrola Inmobilaria before the the European Court of Justice in a case involving the general rules for deduction of VAT credit in cases of investment in public infrastructure.

Kinstellar has advised a consortium consisting of Hungary’s OTP Bank PLC, its Bulgarian subsidiary, DSK Bank, and Eurobank Bulgaria on a EUR 133 million senior loan facility to Business Park Sofia to be used for debt restructuring and the construction of a new office building.

Employment relationships require special protection both at European and national levels. Although largely enshrined in European legislation, those protections remain subject to modifications to ensure efficiency and security of the employment process. 

DGKV has advised AP Investments AD on the sale of 50% of Mall Galleria Varna to the Serbian-based Delta Real Estate DOO and the Cyprus-based Astatine Holdings Limited. The buyers were advised by Deloitte Legal on the deal, which closed on August 18, 2017. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. 

"Lawyers feel the pulse of the economy,” says George Dimitrov, the Managing Partner of Bulgaria’s Dimitrov, Petrov & Co. law firm, "so if lawyers have work that means things are going well in business.” Accordingly, Dimitrov’s assertion about his firm that, “we have lots of work and we’re expanding our team” can only be a good sign for Bulgaria.