Wolf Theiss has assisted Volksbank Real Estate Services in the 17 million euro sale of its Romanian subsidiary, Immorom Sigma to PVN Romania and Inprox, both subsidiaries of bauMax, announces a press release of the law firm.

The transaction was concluded in the context of the Do-It-Yourself retailer’s exit from the Romanian market and the acquisition of its 15-unit domestic chain by France’s Adeo Group. Noerr acted on behalf of bauMax both in this intermediary transaction and in the sale to Adeo, which is present in Romania through Leroy Merlin brand.

“The acquisition also required the restructuring of the entire bauMax group in Romania, which involved a total of nine credit institutions, including five banks and four leasing companies and non-banking financial institutions. This transaction is one of the most complex reorganization procedures ever to be undertaken by bauMax and will focus on five markets in Central and Eastern Europe”, explains the same release.

As the transaction involved interaction of the Romanian corporate, civil and banking laws with the related Austrian laws, teams from both the Austrian and Romanian offices of Wolf Theiss were engaged in it.

VB Real Estate Services was assisted by Wolf Theiss Austria lawyers Gabriele Etzl, Partner, and Hartwig Kienas, Counsel, who coordinated all matters related to Austrian law, while in Romania, the transaction was coordinated by Senior Associates Alexandru Campean and Fabiola Meister, from the Corporate/M&A department of Wolf Theiss Romania, and by Ramona Hromei, an attorney specialized in Banking Law, all acting under the supervision of Partner Ileana Glodeanu, who heads the Corporate/M&A department in Bucharest. The Wolf Theiss team was also assisted by associates Diana Steţiu, Tudor Botea and Tudor Nistor from the Wolf Theiss România office.

“The transaction raised some interesting challenges, since we had to meet the requirements of all the involved parties,through a relatively complex transaction structure. This was accomplished despite the intense time pressure under which all parties operated, in order to acheive a closing by 18 November 2014”, commented Ileana Glodeanu, Partner Corporate/M&A Wolf Theiss.

From Noerr, the transaction was lead by Mihai Macelaru, Coordinator of the M&A department in Bucharest, who was assisted by attorneys Magdalena Lupoi and Luiza Bedros. The German-based law firm’s team was supervised by Rusandra Sandu, the Partner heading the Corporate/M&A department in Bucharest.