Allen & Overy and RTPR have advised Dutch life insurance, pension, and asset management company Aegon on the EUR 830 million sale of its operations in Romania, Hungary, Poland, and Turkey to the Vienna Insurance Group. Wolf Theiss and Turkey’s Paksoy Law firm advised the buyer on the deal. 

Nestor Nestor Diculescu Kingston Petersen has advised a syndicate consisting of Banca Comerciala Romana as the bookrunner, mandated lead arranger, documentation agent, and facility and security agent, CEC Bank as mandated lead arranger, and participating banks EximBank, Intesa Sanpaolo Romania, and OTP Bank Romania on an EUR 90 million loan facility to the Carmistin Group. Stratula & Asociatii advised the borrower on the deal. 

RTPR and D&B David si Baias have advised shareholders Doina and Roxana Cepalis on the sale of Te-Rox Prod to Sweden's Holmbergs group. The Bucharest office of Wolf Theiss advised the buyer on the deal.

On 6 November 2020, two new regulations impacting employment relationships in the context of the state of alert were published in the Official Gazette:

The Romanian Energy Regulatory Authority (“ANRE”) issued a new procedure applicable for the settlement by ANRE of the complaints filed by the existing or future final clients of electricity and gas, as well as by the existing and future grid users (both producers and consumers) against the providers of services and activities in the energy field (the “Provider”). The procedure was approved by ANRE Order no. 194 of October 28, 2020 which was published in the Official Gazette of Romania no. 1033 of November 5, 2020.

Although occupational fraud, i.e. internal fraud committed by abusing the position held within a company, is a major concern for all companies, it does not seem to receive the attention it deserves.

Employers do not always consider the fiscal impact of granting various types of benefits to employees, which subsequently gives rise to disputes with the tax inspection bodies. This is due to the specific legislation in Romania regarding taxation of employee benefits in the form of benefits in kind, which leaves room for interpretation, consequently raising operational enforcement issues.

By means of recent changes to the Energy and Gas Law no. 123/2012 (the “Energy Law”), the operators holding concession over the electricity distribution grid (the “Distribution Operators”) have been compelled to take over the ownership over private electricity distribution grids and related energetic capacities (the “Energetic Capacities”) in specific cases set out thereby. In addition, the amendments to the Regulation for the connection of users to the public interest electricity grids (the ”Connection Regulation”) which will enter into force in January 1, 2021 changed the ownership regime over the Energetic Capacities built for connecting new users (such as power producers), by recognizing the ownership right of such users and their right to sell the capacities to the Distribution Operators.

Over the last couple of months, CEE Legal Matters reported on the launch by Romania's Mares & Mares law firm of two new alliances with firms specialized in White-Collar Crime – one in Moldova and one in Israel. We spoke with Mihai Mares, founder and Managing Partner of the firm, about his career and his firm's history, as well as the rationale behind the new alliances.

BPV Grigorescu Stefanica has advised Supernova on its acquisition of the Jupiter City Shopping Mall in Pitesti, Romania, from Mall Retail Rom. PeliPartners advised the seller on the deal.

RTPR and Allen & Overy have advised EximBank as the coordinating mandated lead arranger and a syndicate of Banca Comerciala Intesa Sanpaolo Romania, Banca Transilvania, CEC Bank, Garanti Bank, ING Bank’s Bucharest Branch, International Bank for Economic Co-operation, OTP Bank Romania, Raiffeisen Bank Romania, and UniCredit Bank on the refinancing and maturity extension of a USD 150 million revolving facility granted to Romanian aluminum producer Alro. Zamfirescu Racoti Vasile & Partners and Simmons & Simmons advised the borrower on the deal.

As at November 2020, many borrowers in Romania are still enjoying the moratorium on debt and interest payments introduced by the Government to help combat the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. But the moratorium period will lapse by December 31, 2020 and, if it is not extended, borrowers will need to resume debt service to avoid default.

As a part of European Union (”EU”), Romania regularly updates its legislation to reflect the direction provided by the European legal framework.

NNDKP has advised CTP on the acquisition of the A1 Bucharest Park from Cromwell Property, acting as the Central European Industrial Fund's intermediary. Kinstellar advised the seller on the deal.

This article is an excerpt of Producing in CEE, Dentons’ guide to tax and financial incentives for film, television and digital media production.

Pharmacy Law no. 266/2008 (the “Pharmacy Law”) was recently amended by Law no. 243/2020 approving the Government Ordinance no. 4/2018 amending and supplementing the Pharmacy Law no. 266/2008 which was published in the Official Gazette of Romania no. 1042 (“Law no. 243/2020”). The new amendments entered into force on November 9, 2020.

MPR Partners has helped J. Christof E&P Services S.R.L. and Christof Private Firefighting Services S.R.L. provide notification to Romanian and Serbian competition authorities of the economic concentration arising from OMV Petrom’s externalization of several operations and general surface services ancillary to extraction and production of petroleum as well as natural gas, together with the relevant assets and dedicated staff. D&B David and Baias and Karanovic & Partners provided advice to J. Christof E&P and Christof Private Firefighting Services.

Radu Taracila Padurari Retevoescu and Allen & Overy have advised Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets on its acquisition of the CEZ Group’s Romanian assets.