Ţuca Zbârcea & Asociaţii acted for the Polish financial group Getin Holding as it sealed its first deal in the Romanian market.
Romanian independent law firm Ţuca Zbârcea & Asociaţii has advised Getin Holding, the fastest growing Polish financial group, throughout its acquisition of the full 100% stake in the Romanian International Bank (RIB), a local lender dealing with individual clients and small- and medium-sized enterprises.
The deal marks the first Romanian market entry by the Polish financial group, which also owns a number of banks and financial companies in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.
Ţuca Zbârcea & Asociaţii fielded a team of lawyers headed by Cornel Popa (Partner), Cristian Radu (Managing Associate) and Gabriela Anton (Managing Associate). They were supported by other lawyers from the firm’s banking, M&A, competition, IP and labour practice groups, including Patricia Enache, Bogdan Halcu, Mihai Anghel, Alexandru Anghel, Andreea Oprişan, Cornelia Tăbîrţă, Raluca Sănucean and Sergiu Creţu.
The team advised the buyer throughout the acquisition process, covering the due diligence investigation into the target company, defining and structuring of the contractual framework and negotiating the transaction documents. The deal is subject, inter alia, to regulatory approval from the main financial market supervisory authorities.
Ţuca Zbârcea & Asociaţii will continue to advise Getin Holding on implementing the agreement.
“This was a great transaction to be involved in and also truly challenging to execute given the tight timetable. Getin Holding is an active player on the banking M&A market in the CEE region and we appreciated the opportunity to help the Polish financial group make its entry into the Romanian market. We are really looking forward to working on more projects together in the future,” said Cristian Radu, Managing Associate of Ţuca Zbârcea & Asociaţii.
Getin Holding operates on Eastern European markets such as Poland, Ukraine, Belarus and Russia in the banking, financial intermediation, insurance and leasing sectors. The Polish financial group is one of the biggest companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange WIG 40 index.
The acquisition of the Romanian International Bank is part of a series of banking matters in which Ţuca Zbârcea & Asociaţii has been involved during the past 12 months. These have included major moves through which credit and financial institutions have resized their operations on the local market through portfolio acquisitions or transfers. In this context, Ţuca Zbârcea & Asociaţii acted for Piraeus Bank in relation to the takeover of some of ATE Bank’s assets in a partial de-merger, and advised UniCredit Tiriac Bank on the takeover of RBS Bank Romania’s retail portfolio.
About Ţuca Zbârcea & Asociaţii:
Ţuca Zbârcea & Asociaţii is a full-service firm in Romania, employing cross-disciplinary teams of lawyers, insolvency practitioners, tax consultants, IP counselors and EU structural funds consultants. In addition to Romania, the firm has a representative office in Spain and a “best friend” agreement with another law firm in a neighbouring country, the Republic of Moldova.
Ţuca Zbârcea & Asociaţii offers the whole range of legal services, and has been commended by prestigious specialised international directories in areas of practice such as: corporate & commercial; mergers, acquisitions & privatisation; litigation & international arbitration; energy & natural resources; banking & finance and others.
In addition, Ţuca Zbârcea & Asociaţii has garnered a string of local, regional and international accolades, having been named the “Law Firm of the Year” for four consecutive years and the “Most Innovative Continental European Law Firm” in the Financial Times’ Innovative Lawyers Report. The firm is a winner of the “Law Firm of the Year Award: Romania” (IFLR European Awards 2012) and the “Best Managed Workplace Award” (Managing Partners’ European Leadership Awards 2012). It also received the “Law Firm of the Year Award” (Chambers Europe Awards for Excellence 2010) and the “Law Firm of the Year in Eastern Europe and the Balkans Award” (The Lawyer European Awards 2010).
Ţuca Zbârcea & Asociaţii’s client portfolio comprises many local and international companies, prominent financial institutions, as well as public authorities and government institutions. Its client list includes: Erste Bank / Banca Comercială Română (BCR), NIS-Gazprom, Vodafone Romania, Expur S.A. (a member of French group Sofiprotéol/Saipol), OMV Petrom, CEZ Group, Rompetrol Rafinare, ArcelorMittal, Carrefour, Romtelecom, Colgate Palmolive, Bursa de Valori Bucureşti (the Bucharest Stock Exchange), BRD-Groupe Société Générale, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Philip Morris, Alstom Transport, Siemens, Ericsson Telecommunications Romania and others.
Ţuca Zbârcea & Asociaţii now boasts 100 lawyers, including 21 partners.
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