Kinstellar and its Turkish affiliate Gen Temizer Ozer, working with Ashurst, have advised British Petroleum on the sale of its downstream business in Turkiye to Vitol Turkish subsidiary Petrol Ofisi. Kolcuoglu Demirkan Kocakli advised Vitol and Petrol Ofisi on the deal.

Kinstellar, working alongside Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, has advised Squared Capital on the acquisition of the entire Arriva Group.

Kinstellar Turkish affiliate Gen Temizer Ozer has advised Property Finder and Zingat on the sale of 100% of Zingat to Hepsiemlak and Property Finder’s subsequent share subscription into Hepsiemlak.

Kinstellar and Schoenherr have announced that PowerChina's acquisition of a 51% stake in the Vetrozelena wind farm from CWP Europe has now closed.

Kinstellar has advised Mineral Ventures Invest on a reverse takeover transaction involving the acquisition of the majority stake in Irish mining and exploration company IMC Exploration Group. Dublin-based Mason Hayes Curran reportedly advised IMC.

On November 3, 2023, Zivkovic Samardzic announced that the sale of Eurobank Direktna Beograd to AIK Banka (reported by CEE Legal Matters on March 8, 2023) had closed upon receipt of the necessary regulatory approvals.

Former MVM Deputy CEO Balazs Tomaj has joined Kinstellar in Budapest as Senior Counsel.

The ongoing search for alternative accommodation in Turkey’s tourism sector is transforming the short-term rental of secondary residences into a new branch of trade. This growing practice has prompted Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism (the “Ministry of Tourism”) to take concrete steps to determine the criteria for the rental of residences to both real and legal persons for tourism purposes.

Kinstellar, working with Reynolds Porter Chamberlain, has advised Ingersoll Rand on the full acquisition of Slovakia's Oxywise. GHS Legal advised the sellers.

Schoenherr has advised the BHM Group on the share-deal acquisition of the Trencin Industrial Park in Slovakia and related financing. Kinstellar advised the Nova Real Estate investment fund on the sale.

Kinstellar has advised Total Specific Solutions on its entry into the Bulgarian market through the acquisition of AS Systems. Sabev & Partners advised the sellers.

Former Goodwin Procter Partner Sava Savov has joined Kinstellar as a Partner to support the firm's international transactional offering and work with the executive team on various strategic initiatives.

Did You Know that the ten firms that have worked on the most client matters reported by CEE Legal Matters through Q3 of 2023 are equally divided between international and regional powerhouses? According to the Activity Rankings function of the CEELMDirect website, Magic Circle-member Clifford Chance, which has worked on a remarkable 66 deals reported by CEE Legal Matters in the first nine months of 2023, leads the pack, but Vienna-based Schoenherr is close behind with 64.

On May 31, 2023, the Sofia City Court issued a landmark decision in the field of copyright protection, pursuant to which three internet providers were directed to disable the access of their users to peer-to-peer file-sharing platforms Zamunda and The Pirate Bay – to both the main torrent websites and any known proxies allowing access to these platforms.

At the end of September, the long-awaited Regulation (EU) 2023/1804) on the deployment of alternative fuel infrastructure, and repealing Directive 2014/94/EU (“AFIR”) was published in the Official Journal of the European Union. Though the entry into force of AFIR is 13 April 2024, it is worth reviewing the key takeaways that the AFIR introduces as part of the EU’s Fit for 55 package.

September 2023 – According to Article 5 of the Serbian Banking Act (Zakon o bankama), no person other than a bank licensed in Serbia may engage in the granting of loans unless authorised by law. One Serbian law that does allow foreign banks (i.e., banks not established and licensed in Serbia) to provide cross-border loans to Serbian entities is the Serbian Foreign Exchange Act (Zakon o deviznom poslovanju). In particular, Article 18(7) of the Foreign Exchange Act expressly allows Serbian entities to borrow cross-border from foreign banks, which are not required to obtain a banking licence in Serbia for this purpose.

Kinstellar has advised the Electrolux Group on the sale of its manufacturing facility in Nyiregyhaza, Hungary, to Qvantum for EUR 38 million. CMS reportedly advised Qvantum.

Turkey’s Competition Board (the “Board”) rendered two significant decisions last year concerning online sales restrictions that provide a view forward for many undertakings. In its decisions, the Board scrutinised the commitment packages offered by BSH and Arcelik, two of the major small and large household appliances manufacturers in Turkey. The investigations against the companies (the “Investigations”) concerned whether Arcelik and/or BSH violated Article 4 of Law No. 4054 on the Protection of Competition (“Law No. 4054”) by preventing their authorised resellers from selling online and/or interfering with resellers’ resale prices. The Board accepted the commitment packages, which Arcelik and BSH revised after an initial review of the Board, and thus closed the Investigations with respect to the online sales restrictions contemplated by Arcelik and BSH.