Austria/CEE: Schoenherr wins five Deal of the Year awards from CEE Legal Matters

Schoenherr has won the Deal of the Year Award for Austria, Bulgaria, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia, at this year's CEE Deal of the Year Awards organised by the regional legal industry journal CEE Legal Matters.

"Being recognised through winning five awards underlines our expertise in advising on transnational deals across the CEE region. I am honoured that our excellence and commitment has been highlighted once more!", said Michael Lagler, managing partner at Schoenherr.

Schoenherr was awarded for its legal advisory in the following transactions in 2020:

• Austria: Lead counsel to a club of lenders on a EUR 300m COFAG-guaranteed and secured financing for Austrian Airlines as part of the EUR 600m rescue package for the Austrian national carrier. The Schoenherr Vienna team was co-led by Martin Ebner (partner) and Wolfgang Höller (partner) and further consisted of Laurenz Schwitzer (partner), Peter Feyl (partner), Hanno Wollmann (partner), Stefan Neuwirth (associate), Wolfgang Hellsberg (associate) and Viktoria Stark (associate).
• Bulgaria: Enery’s acquisition and refinancing of the EUR 95m Karadzhalovo photovoltaic park by a bond issue. The Sofia team advising Enery on this transaction was led by Alexandra Doytchinova (office managing partner Sofia) and further included Stefana Tsekova (local partner), Katerina Kaloyanova-Toshkova (attorney at law), Stela Pavlova-Kaneva (attorney at law), Elena Todorova (attorney at law), Galina Petkova (attorney at law), Silvia Ribanchova (attorney at law) and Milena Gabrovska (associate). The Schoenherr Vienna team was co-led by Robert Bachner (partner) and Laurenz Schwitzer (partner) who were supported by Stefan Neuwirth (associate).
• Poland: UNIQA’s EUR 1bln acquisition of AXA subsidiaries in the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia. The Schoenherr team was led by Alexander Popp (partner, Vienna) who was supported in particular by Gregor Petric (counsel, Vienna), Paweł Halwa (partner, Warsaw), Krzysztof Pawlak (counsel, Warsaw), Vladimír Čížek (partner, Prague) and Soňa Hekelová (partner, Bratislava) in m&a, as well as Volker Weiss (partner, Vienna) and Hanno Wollmann (partner, Vienna) in the area of competition and Peter Feyl (partner, Vienna) in regulatory and finance.
• Slovakia: KBC Group's acquisition of 99.44 % of the share in OTP Banka Slovensko from OTP Bank. The Schoenherr Bratislava team was led by Soňa Hekelová (local partner) and further included Peter Devínsky (attorney at law), Michal Lučivjanský (counsel), Tomáš Šilhánek (attorney at law), Alexandra Adamičková (associate) and Denisa Užáková (associate, Slovakia).
• Slovenia: BIA Separations on sale of its 100% shareholding to Sartorius Stedim Biotech. The Schoenherr team advising on the transaction was led by Thomas Kulnigg (partner, Vienna) and Vid Kobe (partner, Ljubljana). The Vienna team further consisted of Markus Piuk (partner), Maximilian Nutz (associate), Michael Marschall (attorney at law), Andreas Lengger (attorney at law), Dominik Tyrybon (associate), Sascha Schulz (counsel), Michael Woller (partner) and Sebastian Lukic (associate). The Ljubljana team consisted of Peter Gorše (attorney at law), Eva Škufca (partner), Matej Črnilec (attorney at law), Marko Frantar (local partner), Bojan Brežan (partner) and Urša Ušeničnik (associate).

CEE Legal Matters' CEE Deal of the Year Awards recognise the largest and most important deals in CEE. Law firms are nominated based on deals submitted for consideration. A two-tiered panel of prominent lawyers from across the region evaluates the submissions based on deal complexity, size, and market significance.