On April 9, 2020, CEE Legal Matters reported that Dentons had advised Hines Poland Sustainable Income Fund on the sale of a portfolio of six Polish distribution parks and the Nord Point office building in Warsaw to Chinese investor CGL Investment Holdings Corporation Limited. We spoke to Mietek Godzisz, Head of Hines in Poland, about the deal. 

SSW Pragmatic Solutions has assisted Games Operators with its initial public offering and listing on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.

Rymarz Zdort has advised Cordia International on its PLN 229.4 million acquisition of a majority stake in Polnord S.A. DLA Piper advised Polnord on the deal.

Even as the solutions adopted by the Polish Parliament in an attempt to mitigate the negative consequences of Covid-19 do not introduce many significant changes as far as the financing sector is concerned, some of the amendments concerning business financing are certainly noteworthy.

Maciej Szczepanski has been promoted to Head of Legal Europe at the OLX Group.

SSW Pragmatic Solutions has advised Orlen Poludnie on its launch of a second generation bioethanol plant at its refinery in Jedlicze, Poland.

CMS has advised Amundi Real Estate on its acquisition of Nowogrodzka Square, a Class A office and retail building in Warsaw, from Polish property developer Yareal. Gide Loyrette Nouel advised Yareal.

Rymarz Zdort has advised PSP, the operator of the BLIK mobile payment system, on the addition of Mastercard as an investor and the start of commercial collaboration between it and PSP.

Former Local Partners Piotr Ciolkowski, Lukasz Szatkowski, and Blazej Zagorski have joined CMS's equity partnership.

Even though the law on the obligatory dematerialization of shares in unlisted joint-stock companies and joint-stock limited partnerships enters into force on 1 January 2021, some of its provisions have been in force since 1 January 2020, requiring, for instance, that such companies and partnerships maintain websites with space dedicated to communicating with their shareholders.

Dentons has advised a fund managed by GLL Real Estate Partners on the acquisition of a logistic center in Kokotow, Poland, from a joint venture of 7R S.A. and Hillwood Polska. KKW advised 7R and Clifford Chance advised Hillwood Polska on the deal.

Mrowiec Fialek and Partners has advised Yuniversal Development on the issuance of PLN 4 million in corporate bonds.

Dentons, DGKV, Karanovic & Partners, and Ilej & Partners in cooperation with Karanovic & Partners advised Hungary's Optima Befektesi Alapkezelo on its acquisition of a 61.49% share in Globe Trade Centre S.A. from Lone Star Funds. Schoenherr advised the sellers on the deal.

Greenberg Traurig has advised IAD Investments on its acquisition of the company holding the D48 office building located in the Mokotow district of Warsaw from Penta Real Estate. Linklaters advised the sellers on the deal.

Six CEE-based lawyers — Agnieszka Skorupinska, Jakub Podkowa, and Jakub Wieczorek in Warsaw, Natalia Kushniruk in Kyiv, Roxana Fratila in Bucharest, and Artashes Oganov in Moscow — are among the 41 worldwide that CMS has promoted to the firm's partnership as part of its 2020 round.

On 31 March 2020, the so-called Anti-Crisis Shield entered into force, introducing solutions that are to mitigate the negative effects of Covid-19 on the economic situation in Poland. What follows is an outline of the main tax solutions made available by the new law, along with steps that eligible businesses can take to receive particular types of support.

Two Turkish lawyers and six Polish lawyers have been included in Dentons' 20-person global partnership round.

Contributed by Rymarz Zdort.