Following a two-year hiatus, on April 5, 2022, the CEE Legal Matters Dealer’s Choice International Law Firm Summit and the Deal of the Year Awards Banquet brought together, under the same roof, top tier lawyers from Central and Eastern Europe's leading law firms and ILFs active in the region.
The two events took place at the exquisite Honourable Artillery Company venue in London, with the Dealer's Choice International Law Firm Summit being co-hosted by Reed Smith and sponsored by PONTES as a Regional Sponsor, Country Sponsors Avellum (Ukraine), Cipcic-Bragadin Mesic & Associates (Croatia), Ijdelea & Associates (Romania), Kambourov & Partners (Bulgaria), Nagy & Trocsanyi (Hungary), and Penteris (Poland), and Technology Sponsor Draftomat. The conference included panel discussions on the Stage of CEE, LegalTech in CEE, and Building Referral Relationships between ILFs and Local Firms. We were also delighted that, while Avellum's Mykola Stetsenko could not travel to the event, he was able to join the conference and address participants via videolink.
The event culminated in the spectacular Long Room of the HAC with the black-tie Deal of the Year Awards Banquet. This was the most competitive year to date, with the jury voting on a record number of submissions, making the ultimate winners all the more worthy of praise. And, without further ado, the winners of each Country Deal of the Year, as well as the winners of the Baltic Deal of the Year and the CEE Deal of the Year are:
Albania
- 4iG´s Acquisition of ALBtelecom from the Calik Group (Tashko Pustina; Wolf Theiss)
Austria
- Starwood Capital's Public Takeover Offer for CA Immo (DSC Doralt Seist Csoklich; Kirkland & Ellis; Latham & Watkins; Schoenherr; Wolf Theiss)
Bosnia & Herzegovina
- Nomad Foods’ Acquisition of Fortenova's Frozen Food Business (Akin Gump; BDK Advokati; Boga & Associates; Bogdanovic, Dolicki & Partners; Divjak, Topic, Bahtijarevic & Krka; Forgo, Damjanovic & Partners; Harrisons; Isailovic & Partners; Kalo & Associates; Lakatos, Koves and Partners; Maric & Co; Norton Rose Fulbright; Polenak Law Firm; Popovski & Partners; Selih & Partnerji; Zdolsek Attorneys at Law)
Bulgaria
- KBC Bank’s Acquisition of Raiffeisenbank Bulgaria from Raiffeisen Bank International (E+H; Kinstellar; Wolf Theiss)
Croatia
- Nomad Foods’ Acquisition of Fortenova's Frozen Food Business (Akin Gump; BDK Advokati; Boga & Associates; Bogdanovic, Dolicki & Partners; Divjak, Topic, Bahtijarevic & Krka; Forgo, Damjanovic & Partners; Harrisons; Isailovic & Partners; Kalo & Associates; Lakatos, Koves and Partners; Maric & Co; Norton Rose Fulbright; Polenak Law Firm; Popovski & Partners; Selih & Partnerji; Zdolsek Attorneys at Law)
Czech Republic
- Avast and NortonLifeLock Merger (Kirkland & Ellis; Macfarlanes; White & Case)
Estonia
- Enefit Green Privatization and IPO (Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton; Ellex; Shearman & Sterling; Sorainen)
Greece
- Mondelez International’s Acquisition of Chipita from the Olayan Group, Spyros Theodoropoulos, and Others (Boyanov & Co; Clifford Chance; Karatzas & Partners; Shearman & Sterling)
Hungary
- MVM Energia's Acquisition of Companies and Assets from E.ON Hungary (Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer; Kinstellar; Linklaters; Oppenheim)
Latvia
- Akropolis Group’s Acquisition of SIA Delta Property from AMD Holding (Ellex; Eversheds Sutherland; Simpson Thacher & Bartlett; TGS Baltic)
Lithuania
- Partners Group’s Acquisition of Fortum’s Baltic District Heating Operations (Allen & Overy; Clifford Chance; Ellex; Sorainen; Van Doorne)
Moldova
- MAIB Unfunded Risk Participation (ACI Partners)
Montenegro
- 4iG PLC’sAcquisition of Telenor Montenegro from PPF Group (Andric Law Office; Dentons; Kinstellar; Law Office Komnenic & Associates; Vukmirovic Misic Law Firm)
North Macedonia
- Interenergo’s and Trigal’s Acquisition of Wind Farm from Unidentified Sellers (Fatur Menard; Karanovic & Partners in Cooperation with Local Lawyers; Nikola Lazarov)
Poland
- InPost IPO (Clifford Chance; CMS; Stibbe; Weil, Gotshal & Manges)
Romania
- Glovo's Acquisition of Delivery Hero's Operations in Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Croatia (Cuatrecasas; Gugushev & Partners; Uria Menendez; Volciuc-Ionescu; Wolf Theiss)
Serbia
- Privatization of HIP Petrohemija (Law Office Miroslav Stojanovic in cooperation with Wolf Theiss; Marjanovic Law)
Slovakia
- Wood & Co’s and Tatra Asset Management’s Acquisition of Aupark Shopping Center from Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (Allen & Overy; Dentons; Taylor Wessing; White & Case)
Slovenia
- OTP’s Acquisition of Nova Kreditna Banka Maribor from Apollo Global Management and EBRD (Allen & Overy; Bird & Bird; Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison; Selih & Partnerji; Wolf Theiss)
Turkey
- Hepsiburada IPO (Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton; GKC Partners; Paksoy; Van Campen Liem; White & Case)
Ukraine
- Ukrenergo’s Debut ESG Bond Issuance (Avellum; CMS; Linklaters; Sayenko Kharenko; White & Case)
2021 Baltic Deal of the Year
- Partners Group’s Acquisition of Fortum’s Baltic District Heating Operations (Allen & Overy; Clifford Chance; Ellex; Sorainen; Van Doorne)
2021 CEE Deal of the Year
- Nomad Foods’ Acquisition of Fortenova's Frozen Food Business (Akin Gump; BDK Advokati; Boga & Associates; Bogdanovic, Dolicki & Partners; Divjak, Topic, Bahtijarevic & Krka; Forgo, Damjanovic & Partners; Harrisons; Isailovic & Partners; Kalo & Associates; Lakatos, Koves and Partners; Maric & Co; Norton Rose Fulbright; Polenak Law Firm; Popovski & Partners; Selih & Partnerji; Zdolsek Attorneys at Law)
If you were not able to join the event but wish to see what you missed, you can view the event photos on our Facebook page here. We look forward to seeing you all again next year and, in the interim, stay tuned for critical updates on the DOTYs methodology to be announced soon!