Penteris, HKV, and Oppenheim have advised Immofinanz on the acquisition of a retail property portfolio from the CPI Property Group for EUR 324.2 million. Reportedly, BPV Braun Partners advised Immofinanz as well.

On July 7, four leading lawyers from Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Ukraine sat down for a virtual round table moderated by CEE Legal Matters Managing Editor Radu Cotarcea to discuss the increasing prominence of ESG issues and their impact on M&A transactions, due diligence procedures, and the role of the lawyers themselves.

On June 30, 2022, CEE Legal Matters hosted the fifth edition of the CEELM Budapest Law Firm Bowling Challenge: A competition of four-person teams from leading law firms in Hungary, with all proceeds going to the previous winner’s charity of choice. A total of 13 law firms competed for the trophy – and the bragging rights that go along with it.

Oppenheim has announced the leadership of the firm will be handed over to its three newly-appointed board members – Jozsef Bulcsu Fenyvesi, Aron Laszlo, and Istvan Szatmary – with Fenyvesi and Laszlo to hold non-executive roles and Szatmary to take over the role of Managing Partner on July 1, 2022.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Savoric & Partners, and Filip & Company have advised Borealis on a binding offer for its nitrogen business from the Agrofert group. Wolf Theiss advised Agrofert. Oppenheim, Boyanov & Co, and PRK Partners reportedly advised Borealis as well.

Former Mediaworks Hungary General Counsel Istvan Szatmary has returned to private practice as a Partner.

In the first decade after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, an enormous number of international investors descended upon the countries of Central and Eastern Europe – initially, and particularly, Romania and the so-called “Visegrad Group” of Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary – to take advantage of the privatizations occurring across the region and, in the early years, manifold new and giant deals related to the region’s rapid modernization and integration. Inevitably, many of the larger London-based international law firms opened up offices in the region to provide their clients with on-the-ground assistance.

Pro bono is a Latin phrase meaning “for the public good,” and, in the lawyering context, it refers to legal services provided free of charge, generally to indigent clients or charities or other public interest institutions unable to afford standard legal fees. The practice, which in its current form was developed first in Western legal markets, has seen a significant increase in recent years in CEE as well. Hungary is among the countries leading the way.