The Buzz in Slovakia: Interview with Katarina Mihalikova of Majernik & Mihalikova

The Buzz in Slovakia: Interview with Katarina Mihalikova of Majernik & Mihalikova

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"Every day I am afraid to open the news, to find out that yet another judge or prosecutor is being connected with certain criminal activity,” says Katarina Mihalikova, Partner at Majernik & Mihalikova in Bratislava. "On the other hand,” she adds, “it might mean that the cleansing process has finally started. We always suspected these things, but it seems we now have some proof. In the end, it turns out we were right!”

The next parliamentary elections are scheduled for February 29, 2020, but an ongoing dispute between current President Zuzana Caputova and the Slovak parliament regarding a moratorium on publishing election polls has ended up in the country’s Constitutional Court. Mihalikova admits that she is frustrated with the situation: "the people in power have had more than enough time to prove themselves. It’s time to step down and give someone else a chance.”

Multiple new regulations have been established in the recent months, Mihalikova reports, including new rules about liquidation of the companies which she expects will help. In addition, she says, the Slovak government has promised to limit deforestation for the first time, which she describes as a “much- needed change.”

The market is booming and prices are rising on things such as accommodation, especially in Bratislava,” she reports, noting that the capital city is “currently the center of attention and a preferred option for many investors. The city has finalized projects regarding the largest mall in the country and a new central bus station.”

“The M&A field has been increasingly active in the past few months," she says, "and, even though we aren’t seeing any large deals, there are a lot of lower-value ones.” Still, she doesn’t sound optimistic that the good times will last. “This is a situation that makes us happy, but we understand it must soon come to an end. Similar scenarios recently happened in Germany, and we expect a calmer period in the future. We have noticed that some of the major areas of Slovakian economy, such as car production, have stalled in the recent period, and we have reasons to believe the effect will spill over to other areas as well.”

Finally, Mihalikova says that that recent months have been fairly stable in terms of big moves in the Slovakian legal market. She describes this period of calm as “a rather unusual phenomenon, but a positive one.”