BDK Advokati, working with international legal counsel Allen & Overy, has announced that it acted as Serbian legal counsel to the lenders providing over EUR 400 million loan commitments for Vinci's concession agreement to take over the management of Belgrade's Nikola Tesla Airport, which closed on December 21, 2018.

CMS has advised OTP Bank Group on the acquisition of Societe Generale Banka Srbija, Serbiaʼs fourth-biggest lender, from Franceʼs Societe Generale Group Group. Schoenherr, working with lead counsel Jones Day, advised Societe Generale on the deal, which is expected to close in the coming months.

Go2Law has advised Kopernikus Corporation, owned by Srdjan Milovanovic, on its acquisition of TV Prva and TV O2  in Serbia and Montenegro from the Antenna Group. Zivkovic Samardzic, working with EY and Clifford Chance, advised Antenna Group on the sale.

Arcliffe has assisted Yazaki on corporate and labor-related matters related to the company's activity in Czech Republic, Slovakia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, and Croatia. ODI Law supported Arcliffe in the Adria region countries.

Zivkovic Samardzic has advised Livnica a.d. Kikinda, the Serbian subsidiary of Cimos and a member of the TCH Group, on its delisting from the Belgrade Stock Exchange.

MMD has been appointed Legal Counsel to the French embassy in Serbia by Frederic Mondoloni, the Ambassador of France in Serbia.

On 26 October 2018 the Law on the Amendments and Supplements to the Air Transport Law ("Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia", no. 83/2018) (hereinafter: the "Law") was adopted and entered into force on 6 November 2018.

Milena Jaksic Papac has become a Partner at Karanovic & Partners in Belgrade.

The Serbian Parliament adopted the Law on Financial Collaterals on 8 June 2018, which will become effective as of 1 January 2019. To implement the solutions from the Law on Financial Collaterals, the Serbian Parliament also adopted amendments to the Bankruptcy Law, which will enter into force on 1 January 2019.

The new element introduced by this Bill relates to the establishment of a Games of Chance Administration, and defining the tasks and competences of this Administration; no changes or amendments of the present Law with regard to material regulations are envisaged.

It is not uncommon for post-communist societies to wrestle with the idea of competition enforcement. Executives of a more old-school bent are often confounded by having something which once was common market practice, sometimes even mandated by the state, now scrutinized and considered a serious infringement of law. This is why competition advocacy is a crucial tool for relatively inexperienced competition authorities – it would hardly be fair to beat upon market players legitimately unaware of changes to the modus operandi.

Johannes Juranek has been appointed Managing Partner of CMS Reich-Rohrwig Hainz and will assume the role at the start of the firm's financial year on February 1, 2019.

The Serbian Commission for Protection of Competition (the "Commission") is taking steps to encourage the birth rate in Serbia, one of the country's primary political objectives. Its contribution to achieve that objective is current antitrust investigation on the baby care product market, which could ultimately lead to a price decrease and reduction of costs of raising a child in Serbia. Almost 200 undertakings are under investigation for applying resale price maintenance ("RPM"), making this investigation the biggest in the history of Serbian antitrust enforcement. This case was initiated ex-officio in April 2018, when the Commission raided Keprom d.o.o. and Yuglob d.o.o, two importers and distributors, and several retailers of baby care products. Following the dawn raid, the Commission opened four more investigations against the same distributors and their retailers (four cases in July) and, finally, on 22 September 2018, the Commission proudly announced that it had initiated investigations against 172 undertakings (the "Baby Products Investigation").

Milos Pandzic has been promoted to Partner at Doklestic Repic & Gajin.

South-East Europe Private Equity and M&A Forum 2018, 13 December 2018, Belgrade, Serbia, Crowne Plaza Hotel

JPM advised Organigram Holdings Inc., the parent company of Organigram Inc., a licensed producer of medical marijuana in Canada, on a private placement investment in Eviana Health Corporation. Organigram and an unnamed strategic institutional investor each participated 50% in a USD 10 million debenture offering by Eviana.

Bojovic Draskovic Popovic & Partners has advised Cyprus-based Welkino Limited on the sale of Serbia's Zitoprodukt d.o.o. form Backa Palanka to Austria-based ASA Trading. The buyers were reportedly advised by Omerovic-Rabrenovic & Partners.

The former Doklestic & Partners in Serbia has promoted lawyers Marko Repic and Dragan Gajin to the firm's partnership and rebranded as Doklestic Repic & Gajin.