Allen & Overy and CMS were the big winners on Thursday night’s CEE Deal of the Year Awards Banquet in Budapest, with Allen & Overy taking home a remarkable ten awards on the night, including the award for Baltic Deal of the Year for its work on Blackstone Group’s acquisition of a majority stake in Luminor, and CMS taking home seven, including the 2018 CEE Deal of the Year for its work on Advent’s Acquisition of Zentiva from Sanofi.
Growing into a tradition, this year’s CEE Legal Matters CEE Deal of the Year Awards Banquet – the second annual, following last year’s successful launch in Prague – was attended by over 90 lawyers from law firms across Central and Eastern Europe, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
“This was a fantastic evening,” said CEE Legal Matters Executive Editor David Stuckey, who co-hosted the event with CEE Legal Matters Managing Editor Radu Cotarcea. “This event is designed to celebrate top level lawyering throughout Central and Eastern Europe, and we’re delighted to have so many friends, new and old, join us.”
CMS Partner Graham Conlon, who beat a path to the stage to accept CMS’s many awards, expressed delight at his firm’s success in the evening. “We are proud and honored that the lawyers who vote on the various submissions recognized the value and complexity of the deals we were able to bring to completion in 2018. We appreciate the opportunity to celebrate our good year with our peers throughout the region, and we thank CEE Legal Matters for hosting this fantastic annual event.”
The event, which featured fine dining, champagne, and live music from Budapest’s Sentiments piano duo – led by Peter Lakatos, Managing Partner at Lakatos, Koves & Partners – ended with the surprise announcement that the 2020 event will be held in London. More details on that event will follow soon.
Winners of the Deal of the Year Awards include:
- Albania: The Republic of Albania’s Eurobond Issue and Tender (Dechert; Allen & Overy)
- Austria: Vonovia’s Public Takeover of BUWOG (Schoenherr, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer)
- Bosnia: ArcelorMittal Zenica, Finnfund, KPA Unicon Oy, and City of Zenica Public-Private Partnership (CMS and Karanovic & Partners)
- Bulgaria: OTP’s Acquisition of Société Générale Expressbank and Subsidiaries (Schoenherr; CMS; Kalo & Associates; Jones Day)
- Croatia: Meteor Group’s Acquisition of Badel 1862 (Ostermann & Partners; Law Firm Svilar)
- Czech Republic: Advent’s Acquisition of Zentiva from Sanofi (CMS; Dentons; Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer; Ropes & Gray; Kirkland & Ellis; Tuca Zbarcea & Asociatii)
- Estonia: Blackstone Group’s Acquisition of a Majority Stake in Luminor (Ellex; COBALT; Allen & Overy; Hamilton Advokatbyra)
- Greece: Bain Capital Credit’s Acquisition of Non-Performing and Credit Exposures from Piraeus Bank (Shearman & Sterling; Kirkland & Ellis; Karatzas & Partners; Andreas Angelidis & Associates; Allen & Overy; Koutalidis Law Firm; Zepos & Yannopoulos)
- Hungary: Vodafone’s Acquisition of Liberty Global’s Operations in Germany, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Romania (CMS; Lakatos Koves & Partners; Shearman & Sterling; Slaughter & May; Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer; Ropes & Gray)
- Latvia: Blackstone Group’s Acquisition of a Majority Stake in Luminor (Ellex; COBALT; Allen & Overy; Hamilton Advokatbyra)
- Lithuania: Blackstone Group’s Acquisition of a Majority Stake in Luminor (Ellex; COBALT; Allen & Overy; Hamilton Advokatbyra)
- Moldova: Acquisition by the EBRD, AB Invalda INVL, and Horizon Capital of Stake in Moldova Agroindbank from the Moldovan Government (Gladei & Partners; CMS; Efrim, Rosca & Associates)
- Montenegro: PPF Group’s Acquisition of Telenor’s Telecommunications Assets in CEE (Boyanov & Co.; Karanovic & Partners; White & Case; Latham & Watkins; Allen & Overy; Schönherr; BDK Advokati; Szecskay Attorneys at Law; Djingov, Gouginski, Kyutchukov & Velichkov)
- Poland: Polish Development Fund’s Acquisition of PESA Bydgoszcz S.A. (Linklaters; Weil Gotshal & Manges)
- Romania: Black Sea Oil & Gas EPCIC Contract with GSP Offshore (Ijdelea Mihailescu; Stronachs)
- Russia: Merger of CJSC Transmashholding and LocoTech-Service LLC (Herbert Smith Freehills; Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton; Allen & Overy; Harneys; Stibbe; Michael Kyprianou; Bellpark Legal)
- Serbia: Privatization of Belgrade’s Nikola Tesla Airport (Allen & Overy; Dentons; BDK Advokati; Andric Law Office; Vasilijevic Bogdanovic; CMS; Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe; Graf & Pitkowitz; Zivkovic | Samardzic)
- Slovakia: Zapadoslovenska Energetika’s Acquisition of the Malzenice Power Plant from E.ON (Allen & Overy; Kinstellar)
- Slovenia: Novo Ljubljanska Banka IPO (Clifford Chance; Shearman & Sterling)
- Turkey: Canakkale Motorway Project (Shearman & Sterling; Goksu Safi Isuk; Clifford Chance; Verdi Law Firm)
- Ukraine: SALIC’s Acquisition of Mriya Agro Holding (Redcliffe Partners; Hogan Lovells; Dickson Minto; Sayenko Kharenko)
- 2018 Baltic Deal of the Year: Blackstone Group’s Acquisition of a Majority Stake in Luminor (Ellex; COBALT; Allen & Overy; Hamilton Advokatbyra)
- 2018 CEE Deal of the Year: Advent’s Acquisition of Zentiva from Sanofi (CMS; Dentons; Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer; Ropes & Gray; Kirkland & Ellis; Tuca Zbarcea & Asociatii)
