At one of the last sessions, the Serbian Parliament adopted amendments to the tax laws governing the taxation of companies and natural persons, as well as general tax procedures. The main driver for the reform was the introduction of the taxation regime for digital assets and open-end and alternative investment funds.

Alibaba and Oath Inc., a subsidiary of Verizon operating under the Yahoo! brand, have appointed Karanovic & Partners as their data protection representatives in Serbia.

On January 7th, 2021 the Rulebook on detailed conditions for submitting a request for temporary residence approval electronically entered into force.

When Google announced its $2.1 billion merger deal with the smartwatch and fitness-tracker company Fitbit last year (“Deal”), consumer advocacy and anti-trust regulators have expressed concerns over the proposed acquisition. As a consequence, in August last year the European Commission (“EC”) opened an in-depth investigation to assess whether the said merger is in line with the EU Merger Regulation.

Kinstellar has advised Austria's KA Finanz on the sale of a Greek municipal loan portfolio to Piraeus Bank.

BDK Advokati has advised Frontier Pharma and the Baystone investment group on the acquisition of Zdravlje Leskovac, a Serbian pharmaceutical company owned by Actavis, which is itself a subsidiary of Israel's Teva. Karanovic & Partners advised the sellers on the deal, which is expected to close in March of 2021.

Karanovic & Partners has advised Pollard Banknote on its EUR 36 million acquisition of the Next Generation Lotteries in Serbia. Canada's Torys law firm reportedly also advised the buyer on the deal.

CMS’s Belgrade office has advised Banca Intesa Belgrade on financing provided to Delta Real Estate for the development of the Delta Planet Nis shopping mall in Nis, Serbia.

On 26 November 2020 the Minister of the Interior and the Minister of Labor, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs adopted the Rulebook on the unified request for approval, i.e. extension of temporary residence and issuance of a work permit to a foreigner (“Rulebook”), all in accordance with amendments to the Act on Foreigners from 2019 (“Act”).

The new Law on Games of Chance, applied from April 2020 did not introduce material changes to gambling business itself, apart from increased financial burden to operators (higher minimum initial capital, fees, deposits and new technical requirements) and in general the novelties have not been numerous, but it also stipulated the obligation of adoption of new harmonized rulebooks.

NKO Partners has advised CTP Invest on its acquisition of a part of Eyemaxx Real Estate’s portfolio in Serbia. 

Over the course of our seven years, CEE Legal Matters has interviewed most of the British lawyers working on the ground in Central and Eastern Europe as part of our recurring “Expat on the Market” feature. We reached out to them recently and asked them to bring us up to speed on what they’re doing and/or share their thoughts on the ramifications of Brexit or the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.

CMS has advised the UK's Poseidon Group and Belgium’s Mitiska Reim on the divestment of their entire portfolio of retail parks in Serbia to Austria’s Immofinanz AG. Tomic Sindjelic Groza reportedly advised Immofinanz on the deal.

MPartners Legal has set up a Chinese and Asian markets desk.

Samardzic, Oreski, Grbovic has been appointed as AiCure’s data protection representative in Serbia by the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection.

NKO Partners has advised the BizLink Group on its EUR 3.5 million acquisition of a commercial property and production facilities in Prokuplje, Serbia, from Gama Investor Solutions. Attorney-at-law Aleksandar Kuljak reportedly advised the seller on the deal. 

On November 11, 2020, CEE Legal Matters reported that Karanovic & Partners had helped set-up Ventu.rs, the first Serbian crowd-investing platform. CEEIHM spoke with Luka Pejovic, Director at Ventu.rs, to learn more about the matter.

Jankovic Popovic Mitic has advised BASF on the sale of its Construction Chemicals business in Serbia to an affiliate of private equity firm Lone Star.