Cobalt has advised Latvenergo AS on its issuance of EUR 100 million five-year green bonds with a fixed annual interest rate and a yield to maturity of 2.42%.

Sorainen has advised Reiterate on raising EUR 1.25 million in a pre-seed round led by Hummingbird Ventures. Cobalt advised Hummingbird on the deal.

Cobalt has advised Lithuanian financial technology start-up Kevin on raising USD 65 million in a Series A funding round. Sorainen advised investor Global PayTech Ventures.

Stratulat Albulescu has advised Al start-up Druid on its USD 15 million series A financing round led by Karma Ventures and Hoxton Ventures. Cobalt advised Karma Ventures. Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe reportedly advised Druid as well. Hoxton was reportedly advised by Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo.

Sorainen has advised the Lords LB Baltic Fund III on the share-deal sale of a shopping center in Klaipeda to the Union RE Core Fund I. Cobalt advised the buyer.

Cobalt has advised Avena Nordic Grain on the sale of its Estonian and Lithuanian grain trade businesses to the Scandagra Group. Walless advised Scandagra on the deal.

Former Specialist Counsel Edgars Lodzins has become a Partner in Cobalt’s Latvia office.

The initially planned major changes to the security interest regime in Lithuania, which would remove notarial certifications of mortgage/pledge, have not materialized. However, certain amendments to Lithuanian laws governing security interests will enter into force from January 1, 2022.

COVID-19 remains one of the most prominent factors, directly and indirectly impacting the overall political, legal, and economic scenes in Latvia, according to Cobalt Partner Guntars Zile.

Cobalt has advised Novian Group company Novian Systems on the acquisition of information systems and software developer Elsis PRO.

Contributed by Cobalt.

 In “The Corner Office” we ask Managing Partners at law firms across Central and Eastern Europe about their backgrounds, strategies, and responsibilities. With summer having just passed, the question this time: What is your one favorite yearly activity to disconnect?

The energy market in Latvia is in a constant process of development, on both the regulatory and business sides. The following highlights suggest the energy sector will remain active in the foreseeable future, providing new opportunities for potential investors.

Although Lithuania cannot boast rich oil resources lying beneath its territory, a number of large oil industry facilities are successfully operating in the country. This suggests that Lithuania has sufficient technical capacity to import oil and petroleum products from various countries, as well as diverse and technically ensured possibilities of supplying petroleum products. Moreover, the country has secured the required amount of petroleum product state reserves, which affords protection against disruptions in their supply.

Regional periodical league tables ranking M&A activity through the lens of the law firms advising on the deals are often dominated by Baltic law firms, with the CEELM Index special issue of the CEE Legal Matters magazine reflecting the same trend. To better understand why that is so, we spoke with several Partners – from both Baltic firms and other CEE jurisdictions.

During the last few months number of laws and regulations have been passed in Latvia which have an impact on construction processes, investment in the Latvian real estate and project development.

In February, 2020, the Latvian authorities breathed a sigh of relief after the Financial Action Task Force voted against adding Latvia to the so-called “grey list” of jurisdictions with strategic anti-money laundering deficiencies. Prior to that, MONEYVAL, the permanent monitoring body of the Council of Europe entrusted with the task of assessing compliance with the principal international standards to counter money laundering, found that Latvian financial institutions had failed to introduce sufficient methods to identify suspicious funds primarily associated with clients from the former Soviet bloc countries.

On the 5th of October, the new regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on European crowdfunding service providers for business was approved. Although crowdfunding activities are already regulated in Lithuania by national laws, this new regulation represents a real opportunity for Lithuania and Lithuanian crowdfunding service providers.