28
Thu, Mar
51 New Articles

Clifford Chance and Allen & Overy Advise on EUR 640 Million Loan to Sazka Group

Clifford Chance and Allen & Overy Advise on EUR 640 Million Loan to Sazka Group

Deals and Cases
Tools
Typography
  • Smaller Small Medium Big Bigger
  • Default Helvetica Segoe Georgia Times

Clifford Chance’s Prague office has helped the Sazka Group obtain a EUR 640 million senior secured loan. Allen & Overy advised the unidentified lenders on the deal, along with, reportedly, the Bernitsas Law Firm in Greece, Georgiades & Pelides in Cyprus, and CMS Reich Rohrwig Hainz in Austria.

The Sazka Group is an organizer of national lottery games, instant lotteries, and online lotteries, as well as digital gaming and sports betting. The company operates in Austria, Greece, Cyprus, Italy, and the Czech Republic.

According to Allen & Overy, “the proceeds of the financing will refinance several bilateral and syndicated facilities of the company and its subsidiaries.” According to the firm, “the deal is the first of its kind in the Czech Republic and Slovakia in that it brings the local bondholders (in the Czech Republic and Slovakia), international bondholders (under New-York-law-governed notes) and bank lenders under a common inter-creditor structure governed by English law.”

Clifford Chance’s team included Prague-based Partner Milos Felgr and Senior Associate Vladimir Rylich.

Allen & Overy’s team consisted of, in London, Partners Jeanette Cruz and Matthias Baudisch, Counsel Jan Skuhravy, Senior Associate George Chrysospathis, and Associate Jonathan Roberts; in Prague, Partner Petr Vybiral and Associates Pavel Prihoda and Tomas Kirner; in Bratislava, Counsels Peter Jedinak and Matus Kudlak; and in Milan, Associate Martina Gullino.

Editor's note: After this article was published, Bernitsas Law announced that it's team included Partner Nikos Papachristopoulos and Senior Associate Dionysis Flambouras.

CMS at a Glance

CMS Sofia is a full-service law firm, the largest international law firm in Bulgaria and one of the largest providers of legal services in the local market as a whole. The breadth and depth of our practice means that our lawyers are specialised, with a level of specialisation that few of our competitors can match.

CMS Sofia is the Bulgarian branch of CMS, a top ten global legal and tax services provider with over 5000 lawyers in 43 countries and 78 offices across the world.

CMS entered the Bulgarian market as one of the first internationally active law firms in 2005 and is now among the most respected legal advisors in the country. We have 7 partners, 4 counsel and over 30 lawyers in our office in Sofia.

Our legal experts, who are rooted in Bulgaria’s local culture, can also draw on years of experience in foreign countries and are at home in several legal systems at once. We know the particularities of the local market just as well as the needs of our clients and combine both to achieve optimum solutions. Our lawyers are Bulgarian qualified and we also have English qualified experts – all of them regularly working on cross-border mandates.

In our work, we focus on M&A, Energy, Projects and Construction, Banking and Finance, Real Estate, Media, IP and IT law, Tax, Employment law, Competition, Procurement and any kind of Dispute resolution, including arbitration and mediation. What’s more, we also take care of the entire legal management of our clients’ projects.

Firm's website.