In accordance with statistical data from 2018 and 2019, Latvia’s State Agency of Medicines concluded that there is a high risk of unavailability of state-reimbursed medicines in the Latvian pharmaceutical market, mainly as a consequence of the behavior of the wholesalers. The same conclusion was reached by the Competition Council of the Republic of Latvia which, in late 2018 and 2019, published two reports on the availability of medicines. Accordingly, it was concluded that the existing regulatory framework was unable to provide an effective market protection mechanism to reduce the risk that patients in Latvia might not have access to state-reimbursed medicines, because after these medicines are made available in Latvia by producers or importers, they are exported to third countries or other EU member states by other market participants.

Cobalt has advised Lithuania's AB Lietuvos Radijo ir Televizijos Centras - Telecentras on the sale of its data transmission and digital television business developed under the Mezon brand to Lithuania's Bite Group.

Cobalt has advised AS LHV Pank, an Estonian credit institution with shares are listed on the Tallinn Stock Exchange, on the establishment of its EUR 1 billion Covered Bond Program.

Cobalt has advised Change Ventures on its investment in fintech startup askRobin.

Cobalt has assisted in the drafting of the terms and conditions of moratoria introduced by Latvian banks and liaised with the Latvian competition authority to obtain backing for the process and outcome of negotiation.

Over many years, the Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian legal markets have been dominated by the same four firms, although the names they operate under have sometimes changed. At the very end of 2018, however, the market in Lithuania, the largest of the Baltic states, shook. when a large team split off from one of those four firms, and several months later merged with a leading independent firm in the country.

In August 2007 crime fiction admirers in Latvia were thrilled to read a book, Kitchen Justice, describing an influential litigation attorney, the trial cases his office handled, and his secret relationship with judges and public figures. The protagonist was immediately recognized by readers, and the legal community was able to identify heroes less known to the public: the judges in the legal proceedings, who were privately communicating with the prominent attorney about the cases they were working on. It was apparent that the disguised author had based his fictional novel on a real-life characters and cases, and without delay, Latvia’s Chief Justice convened an extraordinary session of Supreme Court judges to set up a special panel of five reputable judges with a mandate to investigate the novel’s plot. The commission interviewed dozens of judges who had been identified in Kitchen Justice.

Latvia’s Leading Commercial Lawyers Consider the Country’s New Economic Affairs Court

In recent years, the government and courts of Lithuania have intensified their attempts to develop mediation. There are many reasons for this – promoting social peace, decreasing court caseloads, saving time and money for the end-users, and providing them with higher satisfaction among them.

Cobalt has advised arranger and sole book-runner AB SEB Bankas on financial institution Altum's issuance of EUR 20 million notes.

Cobalt's Tallinn office has successfully represented Starbucks Corporation in a trademark case involving a local entrepreneur's attempt to register a trademark in Estonia that, according to the firm, was “confusingly similar to Starbucks Corporation’s trademark."

The Latvian office of Cobalt, working alongside Clifford Chance, has advised Barclays, J.P. Morgan, and Societe Generale on the issuance of a 3-year Eurobond by the Republic of Latvia in an amount of EUR 1 billion. Allen & Overy advised the Republic of Latvia.

Cobalt has advised Baltic Agro Machinery OU on the sale of John Deere’s agricultural and horticultural machinery business in Estonia to Wihuri OU.

Cobalt has advised Lauma Fabrics, a textile manufacturer in the Baltics and Europe, on the delivery of COVID-19 personal protective equipment to Estonia and Latvia.

Cobalt has advised APX on an unspecified pre-seed investment into Marine Digital.

Cobalt has advised Steel Import Finland Oy, a metal products wholesaler, on the acquisition of Estonia's Osauhing FinEst Metallid.

Contributed by Cobalt.

"It’s the same in Estonia as everywhere else,” says Kristel Raidla-Talur, Partner and Co-Chair of the Banking & Finance practice group at Cobalt Estonia. “The virus is dictating our professional and personal activities.”