Dentons has advised Heimstaden on the refinancing of the acquisition of two residential complexes in Warsaw – Heimstaden Bokserska and Heimstaden Grzybowska – via a EUR 47.2 million loan from Santander Bank Polska. CMS advised Santander Bank.

CMS has advised a syndicate of banks led by ING Bank on the adjustment to the loan repayment terms under the USD 450 million pre-export facility for Ukraine’s Kernel Group. Allen & Overy reportedly advised Natixis, one of Kernel Group's creditors. White & Case reportedly advised the Kernel Group.

NH Partners has advised Waberer's International on its acquisition of a 51% stake in Petrolsped.

SK&S has advised AniCura on the acquisition of the Gliwcka Przychodnia Weterynaryjna veterinary clinic in Gliwice. Roedl & Partner reportedly advised AniCura as well.

Gecic Law has advised Telekom Srbija on its memorandum of understanding with the College of Europe to provide up to ten annual scholarships for Serbian students.

PeliPartners has advised Mitiska REIM on the sale of 25 retail parks in Romania to the LCP Group, part of M Core Property, for EUR 219 million. CMS advised M Core Property.

Kinstellar has advised S Immo on the sale of its Eurocenter office building in Zagreb – with an asset value of EUR 26.5 million – to Atlantic Grupa.

Vlasceanu & Partners and Wolf Theiss have advised the Ratesti Solar Plant – an Econergy group and Nofar group subsidiary – on the EUR 60 million financing from Raiffeisen Bank International and Raiffeisen Bank Romania to finance part of its EUR 102 million 155-megawatt solar project in Ratesti, Romania. CMS reportedly advised Raiffeisen Bank.

Taylor Wessing has advised Da Gama ASI on its investment in Ready Bathroom. Zydek Pliszka Korcik advised Ready Bathroom.

Kinstellar has advised Chinese investors CMC Capital and Shanghai Electric Power & Energy Development Limited on the acquisition of Crni Vrh Power, a project company developing a 150-megawatt onshore wind farm in the eastern Serbian municipalities of Bor, Zagubica, and Majdanpek.

White & Case has advised Keboola on its USD 32 million series A funding round led by Viking Global Investors with the participation of Presto Ventures and Reflex Capital and angel investors Eduard Kucera and Tomas Cupr, among others.

Wolf Theiss has advised the Kyoto Group on the agreement to deliver its Heatcube thermal energy storage system to Hungarian food ingredient producer KALL Ingredients.

Ebru Ince and Harun Gunduz have been appointed as Partners with Elig Gurkaynak Attorneys at Law. The same promotion round also saw Selen Ermanli Sakar and Can Yildirim promoted to Counsel.

Dentons has appointed Ladislav Smejkal and Jiri Strzinek as Co-Managing Partners responsible for managing the Prague office and leading the firm’s strategy for the Czech market.

Kinstellar has announced that  Budapest's Kristof Ferenczi has been appointed as the new Firm Managing Partner, succeeding Patrik Bolf in that position.

Former DZP Senior Associate Anna Hlebicka-Jozefowicz has become a Partner and will lead the Regulatory, Legislation, and Compliance Advisory team at the firm.

Schoenherr has announced it is expanding its Warsaw office with the addition of a team of 23 lawyers, including seven partners, as of February 2024. The move includes Partners Szymon Okon, Pawel Chyb, Ilona Fedurek, Tomasz Kwasniewski, Katarzyna Solarz, Katarzyna Szczudlik, and Marcin Czaprowski from SSW Pragmatic Solutions.

Senior Associate Tolga Tezel and Associates Radek Kraus and David Wilhelm have been appointed as Local Partners at White & Case in Istanbul and Prague respectively. The appointments were part of a broader round – including 23 Local Partners and 22 Counsels – and followed the firm's earlier Global Partner round, which included Prague's Vaclav Zaloudek (as reported by CEE Legal Matters on November 20, 2023).

Former Sayenko Kharenko Partner Yaroslav Ognevyuk – together with Tetiana Ohneviuk – has set up a new law firm in Ukraine: the Ambassadors law firm.

Bulgaria's Dinova Rusev & Partners has recently announced the appointment of Ivelina Cherneva as the firm's new Managing Partner. Having been with the firm for the past 17 years, Cherneva succeeds founder Anelia Dinova in the MP role.

Act Legal Botezatu Estrade Partners has recently announced it welcomed a nine-person team from Consortium Legal – including Partners Stelian Mic, Barna Bolonyi, and Valeriu Timus – in "a friendly integration and a strategic step forward."

Deloitte Legal Hungary Head of Banking, Finance, and Capital Markets Linda Al Sallami has recently been appointed a Partner at the firm, effective September 1, 2023.

APTIQ Legal – the legal division of boutique consultancy APTIQ Global – has announced it is joining forces with the office of Bucharest lawyer Diana Dinu Dobrin and the Gal Ghilasi Procopciuc law firm in Brasov.

Bucharest-based lawyers Claudiu Damian and Costin Teodorovici have launched Whistle Up – a platform to support organizations impacted by the whistleblowing legislation in complying with the newly applicable legal framework.

In light of the latest amendments to the Law on Spatial Planning and Construction, which put the topic of energy efficiency and energy features of the building in the spotlight, it would be interesting to remind ourselves of the already existing legal in regard to energy efficiency improvement in Serbia, and above all, what laws and especially bylaws at the local level offer and provide to housing communities – buildings (in srb. – stambena zajednica) and individuals and in which manner they may obtain financial support in case that they intend to carry out certain measures/works that improve the energy efficiency of the building, i.e. apartment.

A historic labor strike unfolded in 2023’s ever-evolving Hollywood scene, resembling a gripping drama.  On May 2, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) took center stage, unanimously endorsing a strike.  This was reminiscent of the industry-shifting 2007–2008 Hollywood strike, marking fifteen years since writers last voiced dissent.

Law no. 77/2016 on information technology parks will be amended. A project in this regard is currently undergoing repeated public consultations ("Project"). The main amendments included in the Project are as follows:

In a recent case, the Hungarian Supreme Court had to decide whether a Hungarian undergraduate student studying economics and carrying out international forex transactions can be considered as a “consumer” and thus eligible for starting litigation at his residence, in Hungary against the foreign platform service provider?

Amendments to Law of Ukraine “On Advertising” No. 270/96-ВР of 3 July 1996 (the “Advertising Law”) have recently come into force. The amendments update obsolete regulations on advertising in Ukraine, thus ensuring advertising standards correspond to current technological developments.

n November 2023 the Government of Montenegro proposed amendments to the CIT Law (Proposal).

The new law (Act No. 309/2023 Coll.) introduces a new comprehensive regulation of national and cross-border transformations of commercial companies and cooperatives in a special law. Most of the provisions will enter into force on 1 March 2024.

On 19 July 2023, the Constitutional Court established that certain provisions of the act on public construction investments are unconstitutional, therefore, it could not enter into force as planned on 1 August 2023.

Legislation proposes to roll back rules to prevent employees misusing leave entitlement.

In import-export transactions across Europe, it is common for sellers to protect the assets they have sold by retaining the ownership title until the buyer has paid the full purchase price. Retention of title allows sellers to reclaim the assets if the buyer fails to pay, and even if the buyer goes bankrupt before payment is made. In Hungary, however, such an arrangement can lead to unpleasant surprises for sellers.

Negotiations on next year's wages started at the beginning of October 2023, with stakeholders - employers and trade unions representing workers - and the government as an observer taking part in the wage negotiations, which can last several weeks.

A recent legislative project registered for debate with the Romanian Senate indicates that the current state of affairs pertaining to the reimbursement of judiciary costs is on the cusp of a major change.