In the context of the new coronavirus outbreak, numerous legal concerns may arise in connection with the future performance of contractual obligations derived from financing agreements such as credit agreements, leasing agreements and alike.

Popovici Nitu Stoica & Asociatii has advised Libra Internet Bank on its establishment of a partnership with Monesse which will enable Monesse to offer RON-denominated accounts to its Romanian customers.

In The Corner Office feature of CEE Legal Matters we ask Managing Partners at leading law firms across Central and Eastern Europe about their unique roles and responsibilities. In light of current events, the question for this online occurrence of the feature is: "What have been the top three most often asked COVID-19 related questions that you have gotten from clients in the last month?”

Popovici Nitu Stoica & Asociatii has advised the Romanian branch of BLOM Bank France on a EUR 5 million loan to Isaran, a real estate developer from Brasov, designed to finance the development of residential projects.

In response to the coronavirus outbreak, most CEE/SEE countries have introduced provisions to close certain premises, while only some have banned the termination of leases in order to protect tenants who have lost revenues.

Recently, a decision following a dispute resolution between an electronic communication provider and an electricity distribution provider was issued in Romania. This is a premiere and its origins sit with the provisions of the Directive 2014/61/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on measures to reduce the cost of deploying high-speed electronic communications networks (“Directive 2014/61/EU”).

Roxana Fratila, the Head of Real Estate and Construction at CMS Bucharest, has been promoted to Partner at the firm.

Between around 2001-2011, certain private electricity suppliers (the “smart guys”, as they were called by the press) entered into long-term (10-15 years) bilateral power purchase agreements (“PPAs”) with state-owned producers (amongst which, notably Hidroelectrica) under quite unfavorable conditions for the latter.  Basically, the “smart guys” used to buy electricity from the state-owned producers at very low prices while making large profits by re-selling this cheap electricity at much higher market prices. Such PPAs were directly negotiated between the parties outside an organized market (the whole process and the contract itself being a private and confidential matter) and many of them were loss making for the selling state-owned producers (for instance, Hidroelectrica filed for insolvency and unilaterally terminated all such contracts eventually).

On Thursday, 16 April 2020, the Romanian Government adopted a new emergency ordinance, no. 48/2020 ("the Ordinance"), to help businesses successfully overcome the challenges of this difficult period.

Considering that the Draft Emergency Ordinance on certain measures related to corporate law (the ”Draft Emergency Ordinance”) has been launched for public debate and proposes various measures aiming to help Romanian companies in the Covid-19 outbreak context (for example, the possibility for holding virtual shareholder meetings even if such possibility is not reflected in the company’s articles of incorporation), MPR½Partners has proposed further amendments in this regard, for the purpose of assisting companies with other formalities that are difficult to achieve in the current context.

Former Mares Danilescu Mares Partner, Lucian Danilescu, has joined forces with Andreea-Oana Hulub to launch Danilescu Hulub & Partners - a new boutique focusing on transportation. 

“The Corona Bubble is taking up most of our life in Romania these days,“ begins Sebastian Gutiu, Managing Partner of Schoenherr’s Bucharest office. “Everything is more or less related to it.“

The issue of the protection of airline passengers has been an international priority ever since air travel has become the fastest and safest way to travel long distances.

Laurentiu Pachiu and his Pachiu and Associates team have joined PwC's Romanian affiliate, D&B David si Baias.

On 3 April 2020, Law no. 37/2020 for the amendment of Article 139 of the Labour Code and Article 94 of the National Education Law no. 1/2011 was published in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, no. 280 of 3 April 2020.

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.

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.

BPV Grigorescu Stefanica has successfully represented Mondialacqua SRL before the court of the first instance in Romania in a dispute over a utility model for a public water fountain technically similar to a Mondialacqua product.