Cipcic-Bragadin Mesic & Associates has acted for Flixbus CEE South d.o.o. in its acquisition of competitor Auto Poduzece Imotski Ltd.

Marija Zrno has been appointed Partner at CMS Zagreb.

The The rules on collective redress were first introduced in Croatia’s legal system by two special acts – the 2003 Consumer Protection Act and the 2009 Act on Prevention of Discrimination. It was only later, in 2011, that the Civil Procedure Act provided the general legal framework for collective redress actions, named “actions for the protection of collective interests and rights.”

Wolf Theiss has advised DDM Group and B2Holding on the acquisition of Heta Asset Resolution's Croatian servicing platform and a portfolio of receivables and properties with a face value of EUR 800 million. CMS Reich-Rohrwig Hainz advised Heta on the sale, which remains subject to regulatory approval.

Divjak Topic & Bahtijarevic has advised AR Packaging Group AB on its acquisition of all outstanding shares in Istragrafika, d.d., a producer of high-quality folding carton products for the tobacco, food, and consumer goods industries, from Croatia's British American Tobacco subsidiary TDR. Cacic & Partners advised the buyers on the deal.

“Agrokor is still in the center of everyone’s interest,” reports Vjekoslav Ivancic, Partner at Croatia's Ostermann & Partners. “Not as much as it was previously, of course. But now the settlement of Agrokor is being implemented.” Ivancic says that “it’s definitely going to be a challenge. But all sides are keen to settle this, as was the purpose of the Lex Agrokor in the first place.”

Arcliffe has assisted Yazaki on corporate and labor-related matters related to the company's activity in Czech Republic, Slovakia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, and Croatia. ODI Law supported Arcliffe in the Adria region countries.

At the EU level, long-term discussions on unfair trading practices in the food supply chain have resulted in the Proposal for a Directive that is currently in process. The Republic of Croatia has already adopted a law with a similar subject matter – the Act on Tackling Unfair Trading Practices in the Food Supply Chain (the “Act”) – which entered into force at the end of 2017. The Act concerns business-to-business relations and aims to protect suppliers (including primary producers) in their relations with resellers, buyers, and processors with significant negotiating power. The authority in charge of implementing the Act is the Croatian Competition Agency (the “Agency”), which the legislator considers the most competent to handle these matters due to its experience in abuse of dominance cases in competition law.

Johannes Juranek has been appointed Managing Partner of CMS Reich-Rohrwig Hainz and will assume the role at the start of the firm's financial year on February 1, 2019.

The news that many of the legal markets in CEE impose stricter rules on law firm advertising and marketing than many of their Western counterparts comes as no surprise. Still, to explore this concept just a bit, for this issue, we asked law firm marketing and BD experts around CEE: “What, in your opinion, is the biggest difference between law firm marketing in your market and law firm marketing in London or New York?

Companies in financial difficulties are regularly faced with challenges in seeking fresh financing – an injection necessary for financial consolidation and to overcome financial difficulties. Such challenges become even greater when a company formally enters pre-bankruptcy or bankruptcy proceedings. In a large number of cases, the companies are in such difficult and irreversible circumstances that potential creditors are usually discouraged from providing new financing, which is sought by the companies unable to provide any indication of success. However, there are situations in which creditors may be willing to provide fresh capital despite the debtor’s difficult situation – most commonly, because they already have an outstanding exposure against the debtor. Existing creditors considering new financing may see an opportunity to exit the existing creditor-debtor relationship less “harmed.” In such cases, the main questions involve the position the creditors can obtain by granting fresh financing and whether the legislative framework regulating pre-bankruptcy proceedings is sufficiently sensitized to their specific position.

Divjak, Topic & Bahtijarevic has advised Prvo Plinarsko Drustvo on its October 31, 2018 investment, made along with Croatia's state-owned oil company INA, into the Capital Increase Agreement of regional fertilizer manufacturer Petrokemija.

BDK Advokati and Kirkland & Ellis have advised BC Partners on its agreement to acquire a majority stake in United Group B.V. from KKR, which retains a substantial minority stake. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed, and the transaction is subject to relevant regulatory approvals.

Denise Hamer has joined Kinstellar as Special Counsel, in a regional CEE/SEE position working in the firm's Finance, Private Equity, NPLs & Distressed Assets, and Restructuring practices.

In the Croatian legal system, the relation between two legal principles – the principle that no one can transfer more rights to another than he himself has, on the one hand, and the principle of public trust in land registry, on the other – has been the subject of significant analysis and numerous discussions and Croatian Constitutional Court decisions.

Starting May 25, 2018 the General Data Protection Regulation will come into effect. Although it will apply directly in all EU Member States, Member States have the option to add additional regulations to certain specific situations. This article sets out a brief overview of the key provisions of the draft of the relevant Croatian law, which is in procedure before the Croatian Parliament at the moment of writing of this article.

Helena Kokot is the Director of the Legal Affairs Department at the Zagreb International Airport. She joined the ZIA in 2014 after 12 years in the telecommunications sector with Croatian Telecom and T-Mobile Croatia. She got her law degree from the Faculty of Law at the University of Zagreb in 1999.

CMS has advised Viennese car park operator Best In Parking on its launch of a debt issuance program of EUR 175 million through its finance company.