The MCL law firm has advised private equity group MiddleCap Partners on its acquisition of Czech and Slovak optical component retailers Fokus Optic a.s. and Fokus Ocna Optika a.s., as well as on related acquisition financing from Slovenska Sporitelna. Urban & Hejduk assisted MiddleCap Partners on Czech elements of the deal, with Czech law firm Miks and Suk and Slovak law firm Legate advising the sellers. Dentons advised Slovenska Sporitelna.

By outsourcing production of major parts of car components, carmakers have also outsourced a substantial amount of their financing needs and associated risks to their suppliers. Still, despite rather slim margins, the prospect of a fairly stable cash flow over a number of years has made the automotive supplier business viable in the past. However, this viability is becoming questionable. This is visible in the number of struggling or even insolvent suppliers, the German group Eisenmann being a very recent example.

On March 28, 2019 the Slovak parliament adopted Act No. 91/2019 Coll. on Unfair Conditions in Food Trade, which completely replaces previous legislation on the subject.

The Prague office of CEE Attorneys has advised the AGS Group on the establishment of a joint venture with Spuntik.cz s.r.o. which will operate as MMS Digital a.s. Havel & Partners reportedly advised Spuntik.cz.

Sidley Austin was global legal counsel to the Nidec Corporation and Alrud and Kinstellar provided local assistance in Russia and Slovakia, respectively, on the company's USD 1.08 billion acquisition of Embraco from the Whirlpool Corporation. Linklaters, Pinheiro Neto Advogados in Brazil, and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton were among the firms advising Whirlpool on the sale.

The Bratislava branch of Glatzova & Co has advised Czech investment group DRFG on its acquisition of a majority stake in FibreNet, s.r.o. BBH Slovakia reportedly advised FibreNet on the sale. 

CMS had advised international metal automotive components manufacturer Gestamp on issues related to the inauguration of a new plant specializing in aluminum in Nitra, western Slovakia.

Members of the BPV Legal in Romania, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia have provided local counsel in those jurisdictions to Dutch property managers MVGM on its takeover of the property management division of the Jones Lang LaSalle Group in Continental Europe. The Hague office of the Dutch law firm Barents Krans acted as lead counsel to MVGM, and Watson, Farley & Williams was lead counsel to JLL, working with local counsel from Schoenherr in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and Romania.

Bratislava-based lawyer Katarina Bielikova and Warsaw-based lawyer Grzegorz Skowronski have been promoted to Partner at Wolf Theiss.

Kinstellar has advised newly established Slovak company EcoCocon and its founder on the acquisition of a portfolio of assets from Lithuania's UAB EcoCocon.

Kinstellar and Ashurst have advised AIP Asset Management, a Seoul-based asset manager, and London real estate investment manager The Valesco Group, on their EUR 120 million acquisition of the newly developed Twin City Tower in Bratislava from HB Reavis. White & Case advised HB Reavis.

Kinstellar has announced the launch of a dedicated Asset Solutions practice.

Dentons Slovakia Managing Partner Peter Kubina has been appointed adviser for law, justice, and constitutional law by President-elect of the Slovak Republic Zuzana Caputova, who recently announced the appointment of her board of official advisers.

Noerr, together with the Austria's Arnold law firm, has advised SignaRetail on the sale of Kika’s Eastern European business to XXXLutz. XXXLutz was represented by CHSH on the purchase and by Wolf Theiss on the merger clearance process.

Kinstellar, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Stibbe, and Binder Groesswang have advised CANAL+ Group, a subsidiary of the Vivendi group, on the acquisition of the M7 Group from Astorg, a European private equity firm. Paul Hastings and Loyens & Loeff advised Astorg and the other selling shareholders of the M7 Group.

PRK Partners has advised the Remy Cointreau Group on Czech and Slovak aspects of the sale of its Czech and Slovak distribution companies to Germany's Mast-Jagermeister. Germany's Luther law firm provided advice on German elements of the deal, which closed in April 2019. while Germany's Gutt Olk Feldhaus and Schoenherr in the Czech Republic and Slovakia reportedly advised Mast-Jagermeister. Financial details were not disclosed.

The Slovak system for the support of renewable energy sources has been marked in recent years by a lack of transparency and strategic vision. Even though the Slovak Republic undertook to increase its share of energy from renewable sources to 14% by 2020, in fact in recent years the share of renewables in energy consumption has actually decreased. “Allegedly for technical reasons, virtually no renewable electricity sources have been connected to electricity distribution networks since 2014.”

Maros Pogany is the Head of Legal at KIA Motors in Slovakia – a position he has held for the past nine years. Before joining KIA in 2004, he spent over three and a half years as a litigator in private practice and one year as a lawyer with the Matador Automotive Group. He is a 1999 graduate of the Law Faculty at the Pavol Jozef Safarik University in Kosice, Slovakia, and in 2017 he obtained an MBA from the DTI University in Dubnica nad Vahom, Slovakia.