“These are interesting and challenging times right now for the legal and business community,” says Suciu Popa Managing Partner Luminita Popa, referring to changes introduced by the Romanian government at the end of 2018. 

Wolf Theiss has advised ALSO Holding AG on its agreement with MCI Euroventures, the majority shareholder of ABC Data S.A., to make a joint tender offer for all publicly-held shares of Warsaw Stock Exchange-listed ABC Data. Baker McKenzie advised MCI and ABC Data on the sale. 

Cristina Frincu and Bogdan Popescu have been promoted to Partner at Stoica & Associates.

Recent practice in the Romanian dispute resolution landscape has shown a rise in (i) litigation involving wrongful decisions concerning unpaid tax, lack of liquidities, and consequent lack of debt settlement, and (ii) cases of fraudulent acts linked to insolvent companies, mostly committed prior to the commencement of the insolvency proceedings.

Musat & Asociatii has promoted Partners Paul Buta, Iulian Popescu, and Razvan Stoicescu to Deputy Managing Partner.

Gun jumping refers to premature enforcement of a merger before obtaining clearance from the competition authority. While most companies are aware of this interdiction, it can be difficult to balance the scope of the competition standstill obligation during the pre-closing period and the measures taken by the acquiring company to protect the value of a target.

Popovici Nitu Stoica & Asociatii has advised the owners of Net Brinel on the sale of 85% of the share capital to French Group SNEF, which was reportedly advised by Monaco's Gordon Blair law firm.

Musat & Asociatii has advised Spectrum Brands Holdings on the USD 2 billion sale of its battery and lighting equipment divisions to Energizer Holding.

IP lawyer Andreea Bende has been promoted to Partner at Nestor Nestor Diculescu Kingston Petersen.

BPV Grigorescu Stefanica, working alongside lead counsel Jones Day, advised Molex Electronic Technologies, LLC, on its December 2018 acquisition of the Connected Vehicle Solutions (CVS) Division of Laird Limited.

In the shadow of the highly publicized ordinance on "The tax on banks’ greed" (officially the tax on the assets of banking institutions according to Emergency Ordinance No. 114/2018 regarding the establishment of measures in the field of public investments and fiscal-budgetary measures, on amending an supplementing certain acts and the extension of some deadlines), the end of 2018 brought another surprise for the banking system, partly foreseen but with the hope that it would eventually not happen, or at least not too soon.

Switzerland's Lenz & Staehelin and Romania's Leaua Damcali Deaconu Paunescu have successfully represented Romania's state-owned Hidroelectrica SA as Respondent in arbitration proceedings against Swiss energy trader Energy Financing Team AG held under the 1976 UNCITRAL Rules.

2nd Edition: Debt in European Emerging  Markets, Bucharest, April 11th 2019

MDM Legal, acting on behalf of taxi request and aggregator mobile app Star Taxi, has persuaded the Bucharest Court of Appeal to suspend a decision of the Bucharest General Council and, in a later rulling, notify and prompt the Court of Justice of the European Union to determine whether that decision conflicts with EU law.

NNDKP has successfully represented the National Museum of Romanian History in the Bucharest Court of Appeals and obtained an irrevocable court decision upholding the NMIR's annulment in full of its previous decision to declare Starh Arhitectura, Constructii si Design SRL the winner of a public procurement procedure.

RTPR Allen & Overy has advised private equity fund CEECAT Capital on the sale of Brikston Construction Solutions S.A. (previously Ceramica S.A.) to the Austrian group Leier.

On 1 January 2019, the Romanian monthly minimum gross wage will increase from RON 1,900 to RON 2,080, and to RON 2,350 for employees with higher education and at least one year of work experience in such a position.

The first piece of EU-wide legislation on cybersecurity is expected to be transposed into Romanian law anytime now, bringing into play enhanced system security obligations for major companies in certain sectors, as well as fines of up to 5 % of non-compliant companies' turnover.