Announced in July, 2014, the sale of Austria’s bauMax domestic chain to Adeo Group has been carried out on November 18.  Hence, the French group which operates on the Romanian market the Leroy Merlin Do-It-Yourself brand has taken over the 15 bauMax units subject of this transaction, located in Bucharest (2), Bacau, Brasov, Constanta, Craiova, Cluj Napoca (2), Iasi, Pitesti, Ploiesti, Sibiu, Suceava, Targu-Mures and Timisoara....more »

Biris Goran acted on behalf of Raiffeisen Evolution in the sale of Promenada Mall to to South-African fund New Europe Property Investments (NEPI), transaction amounting to 148 million euro. This is the largest transaction on the domestic real estate market in 2014 and the largest ever recorded in Bucharest involving a single property....more »

Azomures has secured 75 million euro from a 10-year syndicated loan provided by BCR in cooperation with UniCredit Tiriac Bank. Radu Taracila Padurari Retevoescu SCA in association with Allen & Overy LLP acted as legal advisors to the lenders, reads a joint press release. The law firms were also involved in the 66 million loan facility arranged by Ceska sporitlena  in cooperation with BCR(66 million euro) Azomures  signed in May this year....more »

Dentons acted as legal counsel to P3, a Czech-based developer and manager of European logistics properties, on the acquisition of three logistics parks, one located in the capital city of Romania and two in Poland, from CA Immobilien Anlagen. The logistics park based in Bucharest, Europolis, is the largest of the three standing assets acquired by P3, consisting of 215,000 sqm of almost fully occupied space and 40 hectares of land. As regards the assets in Poland, the portfolio totals 252,000 sqm of lettable area and about 125 hectares of land....more »

The European Commission is taking Romania to Court for a failure to comply with EU legislation on mining waste. The case concerns the Bosneag pond, a 102-hectare tailing pond that holds waste extracted from copper and zinc mines in Moldova Noua, the Caras-Severin County, and which is currently in a state of almost complete abandonment. The Commission opened infringement proceedings against Romania on this matter with a letter of formal notice in October 2012, followed by a reasoned opinion in February this year. Subsequently, Romania agreed that the Bosneag pond remained a source of pollution during windy periods and admitted the need for remedial measures. While some measures have been proposed, including for example a watering system, no tangible action has yet been taken....more »

Ligia Cecilia Popescu, Partner and Coordinator of the Litigation, Arbitration and Public Procurement Department within Wolf Theiss & Asociatii discussed about the key aspects in attracting European funds during a related conference organized by the Commercial Section of the Embassy of Austria in Romania. Her presentation, “Key elements in achieving performance in absorbing EU funds – a business perspective”, provided a legal perspective on the main issues which had previously lead to a poor absorption of EU funds, as well as potential solutions to improve the process. ...more »

The French group has acquired a 12,000 sqm space in the ParkLake shopping center where will open a new hypermarket, becoming co-owner of the retail project developed by Sonae Sierra and Caelum Development, states a press release. The amount of this transaction has not been disclosed yet, however, investments in the shopping center whose inauguration is scheduled for 2016 amount to 180 million euro. ParkLake will be located in Bucharest’s District 3, the Titan area, and will have a gross leasable area (GLA) of nearly 70,000 sqm. ...more »

Musat & Asociatii’s team coordinated by Dr. Gheorghe Buta (Partner) and Madalina Berechet (Partner), assisted by Angela Mare (Managing Associate) achieved another victory in court for Mircea Diaconu in his fight against the National Agency of Integrity (ANI). The Bucharest Court of Appeal dismissed as ungrounded the action initiated by the Agency requesting the court to quash the decision by which Diaconu’s tenure as Member of the European Parliament has been validated. Hence, Mircea Diaconu maintains his position within the European Parliamentary, as elected through the vote in May 2014. “The Court’s decision validates a public and democratic vote earned by Mircea Diaconu in the EU Parliament elections, with ANI’s accusations alleging that the office as Member of the European Parliament has been held illegally being dismissed as ungrounded by the court of law.  ...more »

The much-expected ‘re-writing’ of the Fiscal Code is little likely be approved by the Parliament by the end of this year, hence, any amendments to the existing one will be eventually made through an emergency ordinance in 2015, explained Dan Badin, Tax&Legal Partner-in-Charge with Deloitte Romania, during the company’s annual Legal & Tax conference. A new deferral in updating the Fiscal Code is a result of the slow decision-making process within the Parliament, as most of the related tax issues have been discussed during the consultations held with the business environment, stated Badin. ...more »

The Department of Energy within the Ministry of Economy has initiated the procedure for contracting legal services in view of the sale of newly issued shares subsequent to the capital increase of OMV Petrom. The share capital increase is equivalent to the value of the land whose ownership was attested to be OMV Petrom’s following the signing of the privatization agreement as per the acquisition of shares of ‘Petrom’ National Petroleum Company....more »