Karanovic & Partners has announced that former Tokic Ivic Sverak Partners Iva Tokic Culjak and Ivana Sverak have joined Ilej & Partners in cooperation with Karanovic & Partners in Croatia.

Legal Partners and Krehic & Partners, both members of the Deloitte Legal Network, advised a group of German investors led by Brillant3221. GmbH on the acquisition of 100% of the shares of Dolomit d.o.o. Kupres, which exploits and processes minerals in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Akin Gump, Bogdanovic, Dolicki & Partneri, Maric & Co, Isailovic & Partners, Harrisons, Zdolsek Attorneys at Law, Boga & Associates, Popovski & Partners, and Forgo Damjanovic & Partners have advised Croatian conglomerate Fortenova Grupa d.d., on the EUR 615 million sale of its frozen food business to Nomad Foods. Norton Rose Fulbright, Lakatos, Koves & Partners, and five firms from the SEE Legal alliance advised Nomad Foods on the deal, which is expected to close in the third quarter of 2021.

ODI Law has advised MSIN Group on the acquisition by member company EGP of a 75.11% stake in Croatia-based cardboard packaging manufacturer Neograf from Croatian entrepreneur Dusan Boras. The Law Office Mucalo advised Boras.

On December 15, 2020 CEELM gathered legal experts from across the region for its annual Year-in-Review Round Table conversation. In a wide-ranging discussion, participants shared opinions and perspectives on their markets, on strong (and less-strong) practices across the region, and the effect of the COVID-19 crisis on both, as well as on how technology is changing the legal industry, and what the industry will look like in 2021.

“I’d say that there are a few things of note, lately, that lawyers in Croatia find particularly interesting,” says Babic & Partners Partner Iva Basaric, who, first, reports “some turmoil regarding the election of the new President of the Supreme Court of Croatia.” 

Krehic & Partners in cooperation with Deloitte Legal has helped OMV-Indoil form a strategic partnership with AVK International through the sale of shares. Vukmir & Associates reportedly advised AVK International on the deal.

Marohnic, Tomek and Gjoic has advised both Day One Capital and Orqa Holding Limited on the former’s EUR 1.3 million investment in the latter.

Under the Croatian law, a foundation is a non-profit legal entity without any members, which includes assets permanently intended to serve a generally useful or charitable purpose on its own or through income it generates.

How the Covid-19 Pandemic and Technological Innovations affect the insurance and M&A Market. As we are all aware, the last year was challenging for almost all industries, including the insurance companies, which were inevitably affected by both COVID-19 pandemic and technological innovations, and now must face the forthcoming risks and challenges.

New technologies are all the rage, as law firms adapt to the telecommuting and digitalization realities that accompanied the Covid-19 pandemic. Accordingly, we decided to ask our Law Firm Marketing experts from across the region a simple question: “What is the single most important/valuable piece of software you use?” As always, we asked respondents to focus on the question at hand, rather than – as we put it – using the question simply as an excuse to “tell us that their firms are awesome.” Not everyone was able to resist.

The expression “never a dull moment” could have been tailor-made to describe the ethics and compliance function and how it has evolved over the past decade or so. The well-publicized scandals that started to take place on the market (concerning, e.g., anti-money laundering or privacy incompliances) led the policy makers to pass sweeping legislation that called for increased regulation, greater transparency, and more rigorous scrutiny of corporations.

Former Zuric i Partneri lawyer Luka Vukelic has opened the Vukelic Law Office in Zagreb.

Divjak, Topic, Bahtijarevic & Krka has advised Hungarian financial enterprise Bohemian Financing and Topaz Zagreb on the mandatory public offer of shares of Croatian tourist company Hoteli Jadran.

Divjak, Topic, Bahtijarevic & Krka, working alongside Allen & Overy, has advised J&T Bank, the arranger on a public offering of senior secured bonds. 

D’Ornano Partners has advised the Groupama Group on its acquisition of the entire share capital of OTP Osiguranje, an insurance company owned by the OTP Bank in Croatia. Ivekovic Attorneys at Law reportedly acted as local advisors to Groupama. Schoenherr’s Hungarian office reportedly advised the seller on the deal. 

Divjak Topic Bahtijarevic & Krka and Eisenberger & Herzog have advised the Austrian energy company Kelag on its acquisition of the Orjak wind farm in Croatia from BayWa. Tokic Ivic Sverak reportedly advised the seller on the deal.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has advised the Copenhagen-based payment services provider Nets and its majority owner, Hellman & Friedman, on the EUR 7.8 billion all-share merger of Nets into Italy’s paytech group Nexi. ODI Law acted as local advisor to Nexi in Slovenia and Croatia.