Did You Know that, according to the Activity Rankings function of the CEELMDirect website, Kinstellar Partner Jan Juroska has worked on 37 reported deals since 2013 – far and away the most of any lawyer in the Czech Republic?

Turunc has advised Bogazici Ventures on participating in a USD 700,000 investment round into Enhencer. Kinstellar Turkish affiliate Gen Temizer Ozer advised Diffusion Capital Partners on leading the round.

Havel & Partners, Savoric & Partners, ODI Law, and Hillbridges have advised a syndicate of banks on the approximately EUR 196 million syndicated cross-border refinancing loan to the CCC Group. Linklaters, Lakatos Koves & Partners, and Filip & Company reportedly advised the lenders as well.

Kinstellar and its Turkish affiliate Gen Temizer Ozer have advised Baskent Dogalgaz Dagitim and Torunlar Enerji on their acquisition of CEZ Group's 50% stake in Akcez Enerji. Skils and, reportedly, Norton Rose Fulbright Turkish affiliate Pekin Bayar Mizrahi advised the CEZ Group on the sale.

Recently, non-fungible tokens (“NFTs”) have become the subject of significant public attention, primarily due to the high amounts of money allocated for their purchase. For example, it is estimated that the worth of the global NFT market in 2021 was about 41 billion dollars, which is more than the value of the market of classical works of art. For the sake of comparison, that is approximately twice the amount of the budget of the Republic of Serbia for 2022. Bearing in mind the nature and manner of functioning of NFTs, the nature of things raises the question of their relationship with intellectual property law, and above all, the relationship with trademark law​.

Noerr has advised Espira on the sale of Icon Communication Centres to Yoummday. Kinstellar advised the buyer.

On July 12, four leading lawyers from Croatia, Lithuania, Poland, and Romania sat down for a virtual round table moderated by CEE Legal Matters Managing Editor Radu Cotarcea to discuss the latest in ESG developments with a focus on green financing, its regional and local drivers and roadblocks, its impact on non-financial reporting, and what it all means for the legal profession.

On July 11, 2022, Kinstellar announced that KBC Bank’s acquisition of Raiffeisenbank in Bulgaria (reported by CEE Legal Matters on November 25, 2021) had closed.

At the end of 2021, a public debate was held in the National Assembly on the Draft Law on Work Practice. The Draft itself is a reaction to relatively unfavourable basic labour market indicators, which predict that young people in Serbia lag behind their peers in the EU by 10%.

Dentons has advised Raiffeisen Bank on a USD 200 million five-year syndicated green loan facility for Volta Energy Solutions Hungary. Kinstellar advised the borrower.

The Government of the Republic of Serbia enacted the Decree on Establishing the Investment Program “Recovery and Development” (the “Program”) to establish a new credit line for the allocation of favourable credit funds to entities for the implementation of new investments, which will accelerate the recovery and growth of economic activity in the Republic of Serbia in difficult economic conditions caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Kinstellar has announced it is providing pro bono legal advice to public charity organization Soborna Ukraine on implementing its programs across the country.

Data Protection Officer (“DPO”) is a person overseeing a company’s data protection strategy and implementation in order to ensure compliance with General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) requirements. Any company that processes or stores personal data is recommended to appoint a DPO.

On June 15, 2022, Peli Partners announced that S Immo’s acquisition of the Expo Business Park from Portland Trust (reported by CEE Legal Matters on April 22, 2022) had closed.

Did You Know that, according to the Activity Rankings function of the CEELMDirect website, the NKO Law Firm (with four) and SOG Law Firm (with two) are the only two law firms in Serbia to have reported working on more than one Real Estate deal in that country in the past year, with a total of 14 other firms reporting having worked on one.

The strongest forces shaping the dynamics of legal work in Bulgaria, according to Kinstellar Partner Antonia Mavrova, are the country’s recently approved Recovery and Resilience Plan and the branching consequences of the war in Ukraine.

Petr Bratsky has joined Kinstellar’s Prague office as Head of the firm’s local TMT sector and service line.

According to the CEE Legal Matters CEE By The Numbers report, between 2019 and 2021, Ukraine saw a large decrease in the number of ranked law firms and lawyers at ranked firms. While in 2019 the number of Ukrainian law firms ranked by Chambers & Partners and Legal 500 was 95, in 2021 the same number decreased to 69. Similarly, the number of ranked-firm lawyers decreased from 1,579 in 2019 to 1,338 in 2021. The decreasing trend is particularly visible in comparison to other CEE countries.