American Chamber of Commerce in Romania

Muºat & Asociaþii promoted four new partners - Alina Elena Popescu, Monia Dobrescu, Ionuþ Bohâlþeanu and Iulian Popescu, each of whom have extensive expertise in their areas of practice. Muºat & Asociaþii’s number of partners is now 16.

“These new appointments prove the excellence of the legal services offered by an outstanding team of lawyers, recognized as leaders in their areas of expertise by all the international legal publications. The four new partners have been with the firm for many years and their promotion represents our acknowledgment of their efforts, commitment and triumphs achieved while assisting high profile clients in major projects”, says Gheorghe Muºat, Senior Partner, Muºat & Asociaþii. Mr Muºat continues: “These appointments pay testament to the firm's commitment to developing and encouraging our people and further underlines Muºat & Asociaþii's reputation as the number one training ground for the country's best young talent."

Monia Dobrescu has been with Muºat & Asociaþii for over nine years. Monia Dobrescu’s practice encompasses a broad range of real estate and construction transactions. Her work has also included corporate and joint ventures, private equity funds, as well as real estate securities. A skilled lawyer and an astute professional, she led and coordinated due diligence projects and negotiated a great deal of acquisitions of real estate pools, including advisory work on regulatory matters and authorizations. Mrs. Dobrescu is also experienced in FIDIC rules with solid expertise in banking & finance, where she advised major international players and prestigious financial groups in syndicated loans, loan restructuring projects, financing and refinancing schemes, project and asset financing and securitization.

Among the clients assisted by Monia Dobrescu, we mention Caja De Ahorros y Pensiones de Barcelona in relation with various financings granted by the Romanian subsidiary for developing real-estate projects, Grupo Lar, a leading Spanish real estate developer, in connection with the development of various residential projects, BNP Paribas (Suisse), Credit Agricole (Suisse), Societe Generale, ING Geneva with respect to a range of loan facilities (and related security packages) granted to different oil trading companies, Teesland iOG with respect to a syndicated loan facility for the acquisition of industrial outlets in Romania, Immofinanz with regard to the refinancing of its Romanian companies, ING Belgium with respect to its local real estate division, Tornator Group regarding various real-estate investments made in Romania.

Alina Elena Popescu joined the Muºat & Asociaþii team eight years ago. She combines extensive expertise in coordinating merger & acquisition deals, cross-border transactions as well as industrial and real estate greenfield and brownfield projects. Alina developed a substantial practice in domestic and international arbitration (including ICSID procedures) as well as in the amicable settlement of high profile commercial disputes. In addition, she has extensive knowledge of EU acquis, having assisted an impressive portfolio of clients with respect to various matters involving the application of EU law in Romania.

Recently, Alina Popescu assisted the world leader in mobile phone production in connection with the building and selling of a manufacturing plant with an overall investment in excess of EUR 60,000,000. She also assisted Abbot Laboratories with respect to the acquisition of Solvay Pharmaceuticals and the restructuring of Abbot Laboratories activities in Romania. Alina worked with Maynards Europe GmbH, world expert in auctions, dissolutions and assessment services, regarding a commercial dispute against Ford Romania, with claims of approx. USD 20.000.000. Also, she represented IHC Hytop BV ºi IHC Parts & Services BV, a major Dutch industrial player specialized in maritime technology, with respect to various projects in Romania, PPF Investments (the major Czech investment fund) in connection with numerous private acquisitions in Romania, exceeding EUR 100.000.000, Aegean Airlines with regard to the acquisition of an important low-cost company in Romania.

Ionuþ Bohâlþeanu has been with Muºat & Asociaþii since 2004. He has built an impressive practice in taxation matters while also being acknowledged for his skills in capital markets and mergers & acquisitions areas. With tax as his main area of practice, Ionuþ is both an attorney at law and a certified tax adviser. His dual qualification has enabled him to provide complex legal advice on taxation projects spanning transaction structuring for fiscal optimization, tax effects of state aid, income tax, VAT, direct and indirect taxation, import duties and taxes, etc. At the same time, his knowledge and expertise allow him to have a unique multifaceted understanding of complex transaction structures and mechanisms.

During his career, he assured legal and fiscal advice for important national and international companies in complex taxation projects including transaction structuring for fiscal optimization, tax effects of state aid, income tax, VAT, import duties and taxes for major clients including Monsanto, SAB Miller, Enel SpA and Delhaize. Furthermore, Ionuþ has an extensive expertise in energy and capital markets, assisting clients in major transactions, such as the EUR 820,000,000 successful acquisition of Electrica Muntenia Sud by Enel or the Rompetrol Group NV acquisition of the remaining free float of Rompetrol Rafinare and Rompetrol Well Services, so far the most successful mandatory public offer ever conducted on the local capital market.

Iulian Popescu has joined Muºat & Asociaþii eight years ago. He distinguishes himself as an experienced and dynamic lawyer advising and representing clients on international and domestic arbitration matters. His arbitration practice has gained esteem based on experience, strategic practice development, cross-disciplinary involvement, effective mediation and advocacy with demonstrated results. He is also a licensed mediator and negotiator. Iulian's law career also includes advisory work as leading lawyer in environmental and natural resources matters, including concession law, licensing and regulatory issues. His diverse practice focuses as well on the transport law area, with particular emphasis on shipping and admiralty.

Iulian Popescu was recently involved in assisting an international mining company regarding the exploration and exploitation of one of the biggest mining deposits in Romania, Nova Imobiliare with regard to the PPP project developed with the Bucharest Municipality consisting in the development of the largest shopping centre in Bucharest (Colloseum Center), Halliburton B.V., one of the world’s largest providers of products and services to the oil and gas industry, in connection with the development of a new production plant, Liebrecht & Wood, one of the major real estate developers in Europe, in connection with the development and sale of various office buildings located in Bucharest with a value in excess of EUR 100,000,000. He also represented international and local companies in difficult commercial disputes under leading institutional rules and in ad hoc arbitrations in all major international seats, among which we mention the representation of a real estate international group in a litigation process with an approx. claim value of EUR 60.000.000, CFR, the National Railway Company, in a complex ICC arbitration concerning the performance of a FIDIC agreement for the modernisation of rail infrastructure, successfully representing a Greek group active in the metallurgy sector in an arbitration before ICC Paris with regard to the performance of the obligations undertaken through a privatisation contract of a Romanian company with the aggregate claims amounting to EUR 32,000,000, assisting an Italian energy company with respect to an arbitration procedure with Electrica SA (Romania), etc.