Djingov, Gouginski, Kyutchukov & Velichkov has succeeded in having a foreign arbitral award delivered by a panel on behalf of Sandvik Bulgaria in proceedings under the auspices of the Vienna International Arbitral Center recognized and enforced in Bulgaria. 

Latham & Watkins and Schoenherr have advised Telenor on its agreement to sell its assets in Central and Eastern Europe to the PPF Group for EUR 2.8 billion on an enterprise value basis. White and Case (as lead counsel) and Karanovic & Nikolic advised PPF Group on the deal. Allen & Overy, BDK Advokati, and Boyanov & Co. advised Societe Generale, as agent, and a syndicate of banks on a EUR 3.05 billion credit facility provided to PPF Group for the acquisition, which is expected to close in Q3 2018 and is subject to the relevant merger control and regulatory approvals. 

Penkov, Markov & Partners has represented the interests of BA Glass Bulgaria, a part of the multinational glass producer BA Glass Portugal, in a dispute against Toplofikatsia Sofia EAD, a heating producer and supplier for Sofia.

CMS has advised Global Biomet on the acquisition of two photovoltaic parks in Bulgaria from the US/Indian venture Good Earth. The seller was represented by Hristova, Jivkov & Tsotsorkova, a recent spin off from Eurolex Bulgaria.

DGKV has advised VMware Bulgaria, part of the US cloud computing company VMware Inc., on its lease of more than 20,000 square meters of office space in two buildings in Sofia’s Garitage Park residential and business complex currently under construction.

CMS has advised PPF Group on the acquisition of Bulgaria's Nova Broadcasting Group, with 95% of the shares acquired from the Modern Times Group — advised by Allen & Overy and Spasov & Bratanov — and the remaining 5% from Eastern European Media Holdings S.A.

Venture capital investments in Bulgarian start-ups are on the rise, and modern legal structures such as share option plans and convertible notes can, if local law peculiarities are taken into account, be applied in the country.

Kinstellar has advised United Bulgarian Bank and Cibank on the merger of the two companies.

Kinstellar has advised The Adecco Group on the spin-off of its business in Bulgaria into two separate companies. As part of the process, which started in July 2017 and concluded in January 2018, the IT Outsourcing business, one of the Adecco’s key activities, moved into a new structure that will operate under the brand Modis Bulgaria.  

One of the defects of the Bulgarian tax system and of the enforcement authorities in Bulgaria – the lack of direct access to information for the purposes of administrative cooperation (the automatic exchange of information) between the relevant authorities and legal entities – is on its way to being resolved.

DGKV has advised Hungary's OTP Bank and its Bulgarian subsidiary DSK Bank EAD on a EUR 80 million restructuring and extension of additional facilities to the Bulgarian subsidiaries of Libena Resorts.

According to Ilko Stoyanov, Partner at Schoenherr in Bulgaria, although his country has a very small legal market, which means that it is difficult to identify trends and to forecast the future, non-performing loans, the GDPR, and the rapid growth of artificial intelligence are topics that will definitely keep lawyers wired throughout 2018.

Aleksander Aleksandrov has joined Tsvetkova Bebov Komarevski to head the firm's energy practice.

CMS has advised Hugo Pfohe GmbH on the legal aspects of a competitive tender to sell Bulgaria's Moto-Pfohe Group, with Wolf Theiss advising the winning bidder, the Sumitomo Corporation.

CMS has advised the investors of Acwa Power CF Karad PV Park EAD — a joint venture of Acwa Power, Blackstone, and the Clean Energy Transition Fund (which itself includes the EBRD and the European Investment Bank, among others, as partners) which owns one of the largest photovoltaic power plants in Bulgaria — on the restructuring of its debt. Allen & Overy (as international legal counsel) and Spasov & Bratanov (as Bulgarian legal counsel) advised lenders IFC, OPIC, Unicredit London, and Unicredit Bulbank on the matter.

Kocian Solc Balastik has advised Energo-Pro on matters of Czech law related to its December 8, 2017, EUR 370 million debut Eurobond issue in London. Energo-Pro was advised as to English law by lead counsel Herbert Smith Freehills, as to Bulgarian law by Tsvetkova Bebov Komarevski, and to Georgian law by the BLC Law Office. The Joint Bookrunners (Citigroup Global Markets Limited and J.P. Morgan Securities plc) and Joint Lead Managers (Citigroup and J.P. Morgan, as well as Banca IMI S.p.A, Komercni banka, a.s., and UniCredit Bank AG), and Trustee (Citibank, N.A London Branch) were advised by Allen & Overy on Czech and English law and by Spasov & Bratanov on matters of Bulgarian law.

Penkov, Markov & Partners, working alongside Weil, Gotshal & Manges, has advised CEZ on the sale of Bulgaria's hard coal-fired thermal power plant in Varna to Bulgarian company SIGDA OOD.

On Thursday, November 30th, leading legal practitioners from across Central and Eastern Europe gathered in Prague to help CEE Legal Matters celebrate its fourth successful year as the leading chronicle of the legal industry in the region, participating in an expert Round Table conversation about the year just concluded and enjoying an evening of dinner, drinks, and bonhomie.