Clifford Chance and Kochanski & Partners have advised AccorInvest Group S.A. on its purchase of shares in Polish hotel chain Orbis S.A. from Accor S.A. and Accor Polska sp. z o.o. Dentons and Ellex Valiunas advised Orbis, and Accor was advised by De Pardieu, Weil, Gotshal & Manges, Darrois Villey Maillot Brochier, Gide Loyrette Nouel, and Ellex Valiunas on the December 16, 2019 transaction, which remains subject to antitrust clearance by the European Commission.
Last year, Dentons advised Orbis and Weil Gotshal represented AccorHotels on AccorHotels' acquisition, by way of a tender offer, of Orbis's shares (as reported by CEE Legal Matters on January 25, 2019). According to Weil, "as a result of the tender offer, AccorHotels acquired shares representing 33.15% of the voting rights in Orbis. Following the conclusion of the tender offer, AccorHotels owns, directly and indirectly, 85.84% of the voting rights in Orbis. After an M&A process that lasted several months, AccorInvest was selected as the purchaser of the Orbis shares and, as a result, AccorInvest announced a tender offer for all the shares in Orbis, including the stake held by AccorHotels. The closing of the transaction is expected to take place by the end of March 2020. The value of Accor’s stake in Orbis is EUR 1.06 billion (PLN 4.55 billion); the value of the entire tender offer amounted to EUR 1.23 billion (PLN 5.29 billion)."
The Clifford Chance team was led by Warsaw Managing Partner Agnieszka Janicka and included Counsel Jaroslaw Lorenc and Senior Associate Katarzyna Aleksandrowicz. The financing of the transaction was handled by a team from Clifford Chance's Paris office, with the support of Warsaw Partner Grzegorz Namiotkiewicz and Junior Associate Roksana Kaluzna, all working with the internal legal team of AccorInvest Group S.A., headed by Group General Counsel Jairo Gonzalez Hidalgo.
The K&P team was led by Senior Partner Rafal Rapala and Partner Pawel Cholewinski and included Partners Pawel Mardas, Anna Gwiazda, and Michal Bedkowski-Koziol, Counsels Marcin Rzysko and Karol Polosak, Senior Associates Kacper Czubacki, Malwina Jagiello, Joanna Kosmider, Sylwia Uzięblo-Kowalska, and Aneta Serowik, Associates Sylwia Mizera, Kamil Wroblewski, and Dominik Karkoszka, and Junior Associate Magdalena Osinska.
The Dentons team in Poland providing what the firm describes as "comprehensive legal services to Orbis in connection with the transaction, including due diligence of Polish, Czech, Slovak, Romanian and Hungarian assets, as well as tax and capital markets advice," included Partners Piotr Dulewicz, Jakub Celinski, and Cezary Przygodzki, Managing Counsel Dariusz Stolarek, Counsel Marceli Kasperkiewicz, Senior Associates Dagmara Cisowska and Magdalena Olszewska, and Associate Marcin Czajkowski. Its team in the Czech Republic and Slovakia included Partners Jan Prochazka and Petr Kotab and Associate Kristyna Brezinova. Its Romania-based team included Managing Partner Perry Zizzi, Partner Raul Mihu, and Senior Associate Argentina Rafail, and its team in Hungary included Partners Judit Kovari and Annamaria Csenterics and Associate Nora Jakab.
The Gide Loyrette Nouel team included Partner Frederic Nouel, Counsel Pierre-Adrien Vibert, and Associate Charline Boittin.
Weil's team consisted of Partner Marcin Chylinski, Counsel Ewa Bober, Senior Associate Filip Lesniak, and Associates Leszek Cyganiewicz and Arkadiusz Karwala.
Editor's Note: After this article was published, Cobalt informed CEE Legal Matters that it had advised Accor S.A. on its acquisition Orbis's Lithuanian subsidiary, UAB Hekon. The firm's team included Partner Elijus Burgis, Associate Partner Eva Suduiko, and Senior Associate Julija Beldeninoviene..
