With political changes on a local level in the nation’s capital and a booming tourism season, Croatia keeps defying the odds and making good progress despite an ongoing global pandemic, according to Cipcic-Bragadin Mesic & Associates Partner Marina Mesic.

Ilej & Partners, in cooperation with Karanovic & Partners, has advised the Generali Investments Slovenia managed Generali Growth Equity Fund on the acquisition of 74% of shares in Diverto. Lovric, Novokmet, Smrcek advised Diverto on the deal.

Ilej & Partners, in cooperation with Karanovic & Partners and working with Dentons, has advised Singapore's Hotel Properties Limited on its acquisition of a 50% stake in Kupari resort developer Avenue Ulaganja.

DTB has advised Dogus Croatia and Martimus B.V. on the sale of D-Resort Sibenik to Villa Dubrovnik and subsequent sale of a majority stake in Villa Dubrovnik to the Erste Pension Fund. Bogdanovic, Dolicki & Partners advised the buyer on the deal.

What is ESG?  ESG refers to the three key factors (environmental, social and governance) when measuring the sustainability and ethical impact of an investment in a business or company and it is commonly used in capital markets and commonly used by investors to evaluate the behavior of the companies, as well as determining their future financial performance.

To comply with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), companies must have technical and organizational measures in place to protect personal data. In light of the recent decision of the Croatian Personal Data Protection Agency (AZOP) against a leading local security company, one measure that requires closer scrutiny is the prevention of data breaches by employees. What happens if, regardless of various security measures, a careless employee commits a data breach? Will the company be liable for a breach committed by its employee?

The amendments of the Act on the Prohibition of Unfair Trading Practices in the Food Supply Chain (the “Amended Act”) shall enter into force on 1 September 2021, with a few exceptions. The main reason for adopting these amendments was transposition of the Directive (EU) 2019/633 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 on unfair trading practices in business-to-business relationships in the agricultural and food supply chain (the “Directive”) into the local legal regime. The Directive aims to set out the minimum Union standard of protection by harmonizing Member States’ diverging measures relating to unfair trading practices. With these amendments, the Amended Act is further harmonized with EU acquis.

Savoric & Partners’ Boris Savoric and Lovro Gasparac Talk About The Deal of the Year in Croatia.

Krehic & Partners, working alongside Deloitte Spain and Deloitte Legal Germany and Turkey, has advised Cementos Molins on the Croatian legal aspects of its EUR 150 million acquisition of Calucem from Private Equity Fund Ambienta SGR S.p.A. Cuatrecasas also reportedly advised the buyer. Porobija & Porobija reportedly acted as Croatian legal advisor to the seller.

Marohnic, Tomek and Gjoic has advised Balkan Properties Limited on its sale of Poslovni Park Zagreb to Quattro Logistika. Praljak & Svic advised the buyer. Mamic Peric Reberski Rimac and Lovric Novokmet Smrcek also reportedly advised the buyer.

With the summer months comfortably set in, Croatia is experiencing a most favorable tourism season which impacts all areas of business, according to Porobija & Spoljaric Partner Marko Porobija. 

Porobija & Spoljaric and Lalicic & Boskoski Law Office have advised the founders of the City Connect Group on their sale of the company to Sweden’s Transcom. LK Shields and Tragardh Law Firm reportedly advised the sellers in Ireland and Sweden, respectively. Bradvica Maric Wahl Cesarec, Clark Hill Law, and Mannheimer Swartling reportedly advised the buyer in Croatia, Ireland, and Sweden, respectively.

Vukmir & Associates has advised Erste & Steiermarkische Bank d.d. and Zagrebacka banka d.d. on their provision of a EUR 24 million club loan to the Arena Hospitality Group.

A freely-accessible public healthcare system has always been considered one of the pillars of the modern welfare state. However, the dearth of adequate managerial skills and advance planning within the healthcare framework has often led to systemic problems, like issues with financing for a system that is regarded as a public service by users and a private business by service suppliers. This problem has once again resurfaced in the Croatian health sector, with debts accumulated by public hospitals and pharmacies standing in the way of a regular supply of medicinal products and medical devices by manufacturers, wholesalers, and pharmacies.

“What do you call 10,000 lawyers at the bottom of the sea? A good start.” This popular joke underlines the low public perception of lawyers that remains common in today’s society. Although distrust toward lawyers has always existed, frivolous lawsuits, rising billing rates, and thrilling reports of lawyers behaving badly in the news do little to improve the public image of attorneys, especially in CEE.

CMS' Malgorzata Surdek-Janicka has been appointed as Vice-President of the International Court of Arbitration at the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris. Aside from Surdek-Janicka, 33 lawyers from CEE were appointed as members and alternate members of the court.

Divjak, Topic, Bahtijarevic & Krka has advised the IFC on its EUR 75 million investment in bonds issued by the Erste & Steiermarkische Bank.

Divjak, Topic, Bahtijarevic & Krka has advised the United Group on the acquisition of a majority stake in Optima Telekom from Hrvatski Telekom and Zagrebacka Banka. Madirazza and Partners advised Hrvatski Telekom and Zagrebacka Banka.