Contributed by Law firm KBP, member of Adriala

Slovenian national air-carrier Adria Airways is one of many European airlines that filed for bankruptcy in 2019. While passengers with planned trips and prepaid tickets were left to their own ingenuity, the Slovenian Government worried about the effects of Adria Airways’ bankruptcy on Slovenia’s air traffic and important airline connections from Ljubljana Airport to other important cities and regions.

“We had an interesting turn of events last week as our Prime Minister stepped down,” says Mia Kalas, Partner at Selih & Partnerji in Slovenia. “Previously, we had an ambitious government which began the tax reform and also had ambitious plans for a healthcare reform, but now this will very much slow down.”

The recent upturn of the Slovenian real estate market has yielded a raft of new logistics projects and residential developments, as well as substantially increasing the scope and number of retail real estate transactions. A significant share of Slovenian retail properties changed hands, mostly as a consequence of the financial or organizational restructuring of the previous holders. This opened the market to both institutional and strategic investors.

In The Corner Office we ask Managing Partners across Central and Eastern Europe about their unique roles and responsibilities. The question this time around: What was the most useful or valuable piece of software or new technology your firm has acquired in the past five years?

CEELM: Run us through your background, and how you ended up in your current role with Karanovic & Partners.

The Deal: In July, CEE Legal Matters reported that the Slovenian office of ODI Law had represented AIK Banka and SKB Banka (Societe Generale’s Slovenian entity), on the EUR 36 million cross-border syndicated debt refinancing of the Don Don Group – a regional industrial bakers with plants in Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Bulgaria. Selih & Partnerji advised Don Don on the deal.

The significance of medical devices is most certainly on the rise, considering not only its importance to patients, for whom medical devices represent life enhancing products, but also developments in innovation, economics, and in the regulatory and legal sphere. Issues such as data privacy in the field of medical devices were not noticeable until connectivity became a trend in medical devices and the GDPR was adopted. Similarly, the possibility of a cyber-attack on a medical device connected to the Internet became a possibility. Even though the question of product liability has always been present, recent decisions by the European Court of Justice provided new interpretations of existing legal terms and, importantly, introduced product batch liability. 

In addition to their traditional role guiding companies through legal and regulatory waters and managing disputes, General Counsels are increasingly called upon to provide input on strategic matters. An expert panel at the second annual Balkan GC Summit considered how this change in the nature of the General Counsel role is manifesting itself in the countries of the former Yugoslavia.

Selih & Partnerji has advised Supernova on its EUR 220 million acquisition of seven shopping malls and five smaller shopping centers from Centrice Real Estate GmbH, a member of America's Lone Star fund. The sellers were advised by Rojs, Peljhan, Prelesnik & Partnerji.

The wide usage of benchmark rates and their key role in the financial system requires that they be reliable and defiant to any manipulation. To ensure this, the EU undertook to reform the benchmark rate determination process and improve market confidence in them, resulting in the adoption of the EU Benchmarks Regulation (the BMR).

“Well, the legal market is pretty much stable – all firms stay firmly in their places, not a lot of tectonic shift …. all is quiet on the Western front," smiles Robert Prelesnik, Senior Partner at Rojs, Peljhan, Prelesnik & Partners in Ljubljana. “Our economy has been rather stable too, even as we approach a period of slight stagnation – we are quite far away from a recession, which is a good thing in this day and age of Europe," says Prelesnik.

In the light of the favourable economic climate and affordable financing sources, Slovenia has been facing a lively M&A market in the recent few years, especially in the area of commercial real estate. Further, companies are eager to refinance their existing debt or borrow new funds under the more favourable conditions currently available on the market.  Since the majority of financing is done via standard bank financing, every deal poses the same old question: “How will be the loan secured”?

ODI has advised the Czech Republic’s Ministry of Finance and its two state-owned subsidiaries IMOB and PRISKO on the cross-border sale of the majority stake in Vipap Videm Krsko, a large Slovenian paper mill and newsprint manufacturer, to Czech-based Ridg Holding.

Former Wolf Theiss Poland Co-Managing Partner Ron Given has joined Deloitte Legal as its CE Senior Legal Counsel, responsible for all of the firm’s offices in 19 Central and Eastern European countries.

ODI Law has advised the Eta Invest Group on the refinancing of a development project encompassing 28 newly-constructed villas near Nova Gorica, Slovenia. The transaction included a transfer of claims held by various banking and non-banking entities to the Elements Capital Management investment fund, followed by the entrance into a Master Restructuring Agreement by Eta Invest Group and the investment fund. Karanovic & Partners advised Elements Capital Management.

Wolf Theiss Slovenia has advised Slovenia's Sava Re, d.d. reinsurance company on its issuance of a EUR 75 million subordinated bond. Linklaters advised Erste Group Bank AG, which served as sole structuring advisor and sole book-runner.

In “The Corner Office” we ask Managing Partners across Central and Eastern Europe about their unique roles and responsibilities. The question this time around: What was the most difficult or unpleasant experience you had terminating someone’s employment?”