Former CMS attorney Ursula Roberts has joined PwC Legal Austria as Partner and Head of Employment.

After a valuable and information-rich day of panel discussions on important business development and law firm management topics, participants reconvened that evening (and were joined by several dozen newcomers) at the first ever CEE Legal Matters Annual Banquet and Deal of the Year Awards Ceremony – a celebration of CEE’s legal markets and the lawyers who work within them. Awards were presented for 17 qualifying markets in CEE – plus a surprise award for overall CEE Deal of the Year – with many of the lawyers playing key roles in nominated deals joining the celebration.

CMS has advised ING Bank on financing provided to two companies from the Ukrainian agribusiness sector.

AP Legal Belgrade and CMS Bucharest have advised the lenders of Victoria Group a.d. Beograd and its subsidiaries on the sale of its loan receivables to MK Group d.o.o. Belgrade. Jankovic, Popovic, Mitic advised the Victoria Group.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has advised XIO Group on the sale of 100% of the shares of Compo Expert GmbH to Grupa Azoty S.A. The buyers were advised by PwC Poland and CMS Germany.

Former PWC Transfer Pricing Senior Manager Bartlomiej Wajda has joined CMS's Tax group in Poland as Counsel, and to head the firm's Transfer Pricing practice.

Anna Tanova, Executive Director of the Bulgarian Broadcasters Association, has joined CMS Sofia to lead its IT & Media Practice.

After undergoing healthy levels of Corporate/M&A activity in recent times, as we move towards 2019 we expect the Slovak market to remain stable. A notable exception, however, is in the logistics asset class, where we project inbound investment to soar.

The widespread perception remains that the real estate market in CEE is undervalued and continues to offer exciting opportunities for investors. It would seem this is with good reason and early signs suggest that this year we may approach record levels of activity in the sector.

The continued rise in the number of sales in 2017 confirmed the revival of the Slovenian real estate market that began in 2014 (after the end of the economic crisis). While the prices of residential real estate in Slovenia hit bottom in 2015, last year they increased more than ten percent over the previous year. Real estate prices have continued to rise in the first few months of this year as well.

Does buying land make you the owner of the buildings on that land as well? In many situations, the answer is yes, but in the context of the public sale of property within enforcement proceedings, this is not always the case.

CMS has acted with lead counsel Jones Day in advising the OTP Bank Group on its acquisition of Societe Generale subsidiaries SG Expressbank Group, Sogelife Insurance Company, and SG Banka Albania, for over EUR 600 million. Schoenherr's Sofia office and Kalo & Associates in Tirana advised Societe Generale on the sale.

Dvorak Hager & Partners has represented Raiffeisen Realitni Fond in its acquisition of Retail Park Pisek, s.r.o. from Czech developer CSPP. CMS advised the sellers on the deal.

CMS Sofia has advised Austrian-based funds Universale International Realitaten, CA Immo International Holding, and CEE Realty Beteiligungs on the sale of Megapark, а 75,000 square meter office building in Sofia, to Lion’s Head Investments, a joint venture between the Bulgarian real estate holding AG Capital and the South African investor Old Mutual Group. Kinstellar advised the buyer on the deal.

CMS has advised Kreditech Holding SSL GmbH on the sale of 100% shares in its Czech subsidiary, Kreditech Ceska Republika, to Kancelaria Medius S.A.

CMS has advised UBM Development AG and Lindorcenia on the sale of the Park Inn by Radisson Krakow Hotel to Union Investment, Institutional Property. Dentons advised Union Investment on the acquisition. The transaction is valued at approximately EUR 26 million.

To a large extent, the ability of law firm marketing and business development experts to successfully promote the firms they work within depends on the support they get from their firms’ partners. So we asked them: What partner at your firm would you single out for her/his recognition of the value of what you do and ability to get you what you need efficiently and quickly?

On January 11, 2018, CEE Legal Matters reported that Dentons advised the London branch of UniCredit Bank AG and MUFG as coordinators on a EUR 750 million revolving credit facility provided by a group of 13 banks to MOL Plc, the Hungarian multinational oil and gas company. CMS advised MOL on the deal, which represented the largest financing deal in Hungary in 2017.