Selih & Partners, working with Clifford Chance and Savoric & Partners, has advised Allegro on its acquisition of Mall Group and WeDo from the PPF Group, EC Investments, and Rockaway Capital. White & Case advised the sellers on the deal.

Contributed by Rowan Legal.

Dentons has advised the PPF Group on its sale of mobile phone operator Telenor Montenegro to Hungarian technology company 4iG. Andric Law advised PPF on local Montenegrin law aspects. Kinstellar reportedly advised 4iG on the deal. 

Former Taylor Wessing Partner and Co-Head of the firm's CEE Life Sciences practice Barbora Dubanska has established Dubanska & Co. in Prague, a boutique law firm specializing in life sciences, biotech, FMCG, and digital.

Clifford Chance has advised real estate investment trust P3 Spain Logistic Parks on the restructuring of its European logistics portfolio. 

Weinhold Legal has provided pro bono legal assistance to Czech endowment fund Tilia Impact Ventures on its investment in start-up Deafcom.

Weinhold Legal has advised Gate4ad on the launch of its advertising space purchasing platform.

Clifford Chance has advised the Charnwood Company on its sale of Eastgate Park to Hines Global Income Trust. White & Case reportedly advised Hines Global on the deal.

Cytowski & Partners has advised Resistant AI on its USD 16.6 million Series A funding round led by Alphabet's GV with the participation of Index Ventures, Credo Ventures, Seedcamp, and several unnamed angel investors. Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati reportedly advised GV.

Kinstellar has advised GIC on the Czech, Hungarian, Bulgarian, and Serbian aspects of its 30% stake acquisition in the Cetin Group from PPF. BDK Advokati and Lakatos, Koves & Partners advised the seller on Serbian and Hungarian aspects, respectively. Djingov, Gouginski, Kyutchukov & Velichkov, White & Case, and NautaDutilh reportedly also advised the seller. Herbert Smith Freehills also advised the buyer, with Loyens & Loeff reportedly advising the buyer in the Netherlands.

An interview with Tristan O’Connor of CMS, about his path from Australia to Czech Republic.

On January 1, 2021, an amendment to the Czech Companies Act came into effect, which brought many minor and major changes to the current life of business companies in the Czech Republic.

On May 25, 2018, the personal data protection rules in the Czech Republic were substantially changed. Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council – the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR – became directly applicable law in all EU Member States, after a two-year transition period. Thus, the principles of personal data protection in the Czech Republic, the rights, duties, and processing requirements are regulated primarily by the GDPR. 

The pandemic has transformed the Czech real estate market. While the residential and logistics real estate markets strengthened, the retail, tourism, and hotel sectors are among the worst affected. However, interest in investing in real estate has not waned as, in uncertain times, the purchase of real estate represents a safe place to park one’s funds and watch them appreciate. There has been no significant decline in property prices, even in the case of commercial real estate, as some investors had anticipated. The Czech market still lacks enough quality investment opportunities. The clear winner of this situation is the logistics segment. Our Prague office assisted in several transactions in the logistics segment, the largest being the purchase of 130 hectares of land intended for warehouse development, at one of the exits of the western D5 motorway. According to some real estate players, we can also expect increased interest in the industrial segment soon, including sale & leaseback transactions.

Most of our readers might be familiar with Roman Pecenka as a Partner at PRK Partners. For years though, he has also been serving as the Vice Mayor of Podolanka. CEE Legal Matters spoke with him to learn more about his life in elected office.

With Havel & Partners celebrating 20 years of existence this year, CEE Legal Matters spoke with Robert Nespurek, one of the firm’s founding Partners, to look back at the past two decades and the firm’s plans for the future.

CEE Legal Matters has been reporting on an increased number of deals in the Czech Republic’s logistics sector. We reached out to several Czech real estate lawyers to discuss both the drivers behind the spike in work in the sector and the challenges it faces in the country.

Thinking about my journey and experiences as an expat lawyer in the Czech Republic, I vividly recall one of the early client meetings I had fresh off the boat in the mid-1990s. A CEE client came to the office with a “suitcase” telephone … an old school plastic telephone with a rotary dial and a long antenna, encased in an MDF “custom telecommunications suitcase” which he proudly lugged onto the desk …  (He was also wearing one of those plum-colored shiny polyester suits so beloved by New Europe Entrepreneurs in the 90s). Note to incredulous young lawyers reading this: in those days there were no mobile phones (The horror!).