ACT LEGAL

Address: Victoria Center, 145 Calea Victoriei, 4th floor, 1st District, RO-010072, Bucharest, Romania
Tel: +40 21 260 78 55
Fax: +40 21 795 76 24
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: www.actlegal-romania-bep.com; www.actlegal.com
Most senior representative: Stefan Botezatu, Managing Partner
No. of local partners: 7
No. of lawyers: 22
Year founded in Romania: 2016
Offices in Romania: Bucharest
Representative clients include: E.ON Romania, Pluxee Romania, Louis Delhaize Group, Morphosis Capital, CEECAT Capital, Leroy Merlin Romania, Ipso Agricultura, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Delgaz Grid, E.ON Energie Romania.

Partners and heads of practice

Stefan Botezatu, Managing Partner

Stefan is Managing Partner and founder of Botezatu Estrade Partners, established in 2016 in Bucharest, Romania. He has strong expertise in energy regulatory matters covering electricity and gas trading, gas and electricity supply and distribution and production, as well as ancillary services including e-mobility and development of infrastructure for electric vehicles. Throughout his legal career of over 21 years, he has advised an impressive number of high-profile clients active in various business sectors in CEE/SEE and Asia. He is an excellent closer and forward thinker.

Laura Estrade, Partner

Laura is Partner and founder of Botezatu Estrade Partners, established in 2016 in Bucharest, Romania. Laura’s expertise encompasses sophisticated M&A transactions in various sectors, as well as business transfers, joint ventures and corporate restructurings.

She also has in-depth knowledge in the Energy, Litigation, Regulatory, Employment, having managed complex projects in these areas. She constantly achieves high performances in her practice areas, having as background numerous high-level experiences, which helped her build a strong and thorough understanding of the clients’ needs and processes involved.

Laura is a member of the Bucharest and Paris Bar Associations.

Mihaela Posirca, Partner

Mihaela is a highly skilled lawyer with special focus on and impressive track record in the retail sector built over the last 15 years in international law firms.

She can boast involvement in many of the top deals in the retail arena and has strong expertise in the logistics sector, which recommends her as one of the experts in this industry sector. Mihaela is also recognized as lead advisor in the area of forestry and agriculture, as well as in relation to the development of residential projects.

List of the most representative projects

Corporate and M&A

Assisted Franco-Belgian Group Louis Delhaize, owner of Cora retailer, in the sale of its Romanian operations to Carrefour Group. Cora Romania, owned by the Louis Delhaize Group, operated 10 hypermarkets, 9 cora Urban stores, and employed over 2,010 professionals. This sale represents a noteworthy development within the Romanian food retail landscape.

Assisted the consortium of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), CEECAT Capital, and Morphosis Capital Fund II in signing a significant agreement to become the majority shareholder in Romanian discount retailer La Cocos. The transaction is designed to accelerate the national expansion of La Cocos, with plans to significantly increase its footprint across Romania.

Assisted Nimbus Capital Management B.V., as Fund Manager, in a cross-border distressed M&A transaction involving 7 subsidiaries of Illig Maschinenbau GmbH & Co. KG, a leading manufacturer of machines and tools for thermoforming and cardboard packaging solutions. The law firm’s German office acted as lead coordinators in this transaction that entailed assets in Germany, Romania, Brazil, France, US, UK, China, and India.

Assisted Kernel Holding, the world's leading producer and exporter of sunflower oil and Ukraine’s largest agribusiness, facilitating their entry and ongoing operations in the Romanian market. This included navigating regulatory requirements, establishing corporate structures, and ensuring compliance with local laws. In addition to this, the firm is actively supporting Kernel Holding on a wide range of commercial matters, including contract negotiations, supply chain agreements, and strategic partnerships.

Providing ongoing legal support to Pluxee Romania, addressing a broad range of legal issues. The firm’s assistance includes (a) Corporate rebranding: Assisting Pluxee Romania with its rebranding strategy from a legal perspective, including changing the corporate name from Sodexo Pass Romania, (b) Share capital increase: Managing share capital increase operations by incorporating profits and (c) Corporate governance: Providing day-to-day assistance in planning general shareholders' meetings and ensuring compliance with Companies Law. The firm’s dedicated legal support ensures that Pluxee Romania navigates its corporate activities smoothly and remains compliant with all relevant regulations.

Specialist lawyers: Laura Estrade, Stefan Botezatu, Mihaela Posirca, Christian Mindru, Iustina Oblu, Ruxandra Listea, Alexandru Dan, Andrei Petre, Andreea Modreanu.



Energy and Natural Resources

Provided assistance and representation to E.ON Energie Romania and the formerly E.ON Gaz Furnizare, Delgaz Grid in proceedings commenced against the Romanian Energy Regulatory Authority in relation to regulated tariffs and related matters, with an aggregated value of over €200 million.

Assisting Delgaz Grid in challenges against ANRE’s orders approving the regulated rate of return applicable to power and natural gas distribution tariffs in the period 2019 - 2023. In 2019, the regulated rate of return for both sectors have been set by ANRE at a record-low value since the privatizations and has caused the Romanian Government to intervene in 2020 to suspend the effects of the challenged ANRE legislation.

Assisted E.ON Energie Romania to navigate throughout the extensive amendments of the energy legislation in relation to support measures following the increase of prices at international level. In particular, the team has provided the client with an extensive analysis on the application of the consumers support measures introduced by the Romanian Government.

In the context of REPower Europe and the targeted measures to accelerate the deployment of renewable energy sources taken European-wide, the firm assisted E.ON Energie Romania in various mandates such as: (I) assisting the client in relation to the prosumer energy regulation (e.g. conditions to be met by prosumers or analysis regarding energy efficiency and energy performance), (II) challenging in front of ANRE the legal provisions regarding financial responsibility for costs generated by prosumers’ imbalances and (III) assisting the implementation and promotion of a campaign intended to encourage and help consumers to benefit from public funds dedicated to the installation of photovoltaic panel systems for energy production.

Assistance and representation for E.ON Energie Romania against the Consumer Protection Agency and the National Energy Regulatory Authority in challenges against the sanctioning minutes concluded by those authorities. As a consequence of the liberalization of the prices regarding the supply of natural gas and power, the Consumer Protection Agency and the Regulatory Authority conducted several investigations regarding E.ON Energie Romania’s implementation process of the liberalization process with respect to the passive households clients.

Specialist lawyers: Stefan Botezatu, Andrei Petre, Daniela Goreacii, Lorena Samoila. 



Competition

Assisted Franco-Belgian Group Louis Delhaize, owner of Cora retailer, in the successful sale of its Romanian operations to Carrefour Group - this is one of the most notable transactions in the Romanian food retail market over the last years. The firm’s ample competition assistance in the file included: (I) merger clearance with the competition authorities (i.e. European Commission and Competition Council), (II) market share analysis, review of past practice of the European Commission and EU member states, as well as of the Competition Council and (III) FDI clearance (foreign direct investment regulation) matters.

Assisted Intrarom, a major information and communications technology vendor on the Romanian market, in relation to drafting and implementing a Competition compliance package and organizing a competition training session with Intrarom employees. The matter was important as Intrarom was previously sanctioned for rigging tenders. It was included on a blacklist by the Competition Council and National Agency for Public Procurement and therefore had issues in public procurement procedures. Moreover, the firm is further providing general day-to-day assistance on various competition law matters as well as annually providing competition compliance training sessions for the client.

In the context of price increases caused by the energy crisis, the firm assisted and represented E.ON Energie Romania in relation to a series of formal information requests from the Competition Council in the energy sector (both in the natural gas and power market), with focus on the natural gas/power acquisitions and supply to consumers.

Assisted and represented Delgaz Grid in relation to formal information requests from the Competition Council with respect to the Study on the power market with focus on the identification of possible legislative barriers in the process of approval and connection of new investments in renewable electricity generation capacities.

Assisted and represented the client in relation to a dawn raid by the Competition Council, as well an investigation concerning alleged price fixing in the promotional sales. This matter included assistance regarding the Competition Council`s investigation, preparation of the case, risk analysis, various communications with the authority, drafting observations to the investigation report and representation during the hearings before the Competition Council plenary. The case raises intricate issues relating to the evidentiary standard required in antitrust investigations, by reference to the guarantees awarded under the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice. 

Specialist lawyers: Stefan Botezatu, Andrei Petre, Lorena Samoila, Daniela Goreacii.



Real Estate

Assisting the DIY operator Leroy Merlin in a complex project involving sale of assets as well as lease of new premises. The team advised the client both in the related structuring and negotiation process, as well as in the due diligence review.

Advised Victoria Center, the owner of a prime office building and part of the Macquarie Group, on the negotiation and signing of new leases for office spaces located in central Bucharest.

Assisting Pluxee Romania, as tenant, in the negotiations with its landlords for office and production spaces as well as other ancillary spaces necessary for its activity
or key personnel. 

Specialist lawyers: Mihaela Posirca, Iustina Oblu, Alexandru Dan, Andreea Modreanu.



Litigation and Dispute Resolution

Assisting Delgaz Grid in challenges against ANRE’s orders approving the regulated rate of return applicable to power and natural gas distribution tariffs in the period 2019 - 2023. In 2019, the regulated rate of return for both sectors have been set by ANRE at a record-low value since the privatizations and has caused the Romanian Government to intervene in 2020 to suspend the effects of the challenged ANRE legislation. Assistance and representation to Pluxee Romania in debt recovery procedures against over 70 debtors of Pluxee Romania. The matter involved various procedures including payment ordinances, insolvency and pre-insolvency procedures, settlements, enforcement procedures. With the firm’s assistance, most of the debts were recovered after mediation processes.

Assisted E.ON Energie Romania and Delgaz Grid in proceedings commenced against the Romanian Energy Regulatory Authority in relation to regulated tariffs and related matters, with an aggregated value of over €200 million. 

Specialist lawyers: Stefan Botezatu, Daniela Goreacii, Miruna Nitu.



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