Clifford Chance Badea, the Bucharest office of global law firm Clifford Chance, has been chosen as Romania's National Law Firm of the Year by the IFLR European Awards 2020, announced today in London.

The Romanian award has been received by Clifford Chance for the fifth year, after the recognitions in 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2018.

"During such challenging times, we have very few certainties. We know, however, that the ability to innovate and adapt will make the difference in the new economic reality. While these are not times for celebration, this international acknowledgment of proven track record in innovation stands testimony for clients and partners that we are ready to support their needs and navigate together through this crisis," Daniel Badea, Managing Partner Clifford Chance Badea, said.

Overall, Clifford Chance has been awarded 12 IFLR European Awards this year, including International Law Firm of the Year 2020.

The Bucharest office is fully integrated in the global network and advises high-profile deals with international impact. Public projects successfully closed in 2019 include:

The M&A and Real Estate Practice

• Advising First Bank, owned by US-based investment fund J.C. Flowers & Co., in relation to its acquisition of Bank Leumi Romania (April 2019);
• Advising the German-based REWE / DerTour group with retail and tourism activities, in relation to the acquisition of the travel agency arm of Eurolines Romania (July 2019);
• Advising private equity fund Abris Capital Partners in the acquisition of a majority stake in Global Technical Group, the leading end-to-end solution provider for building management and security integrator in Romania (July 2019);
• Advising French-based investment fund AEW in connection with the sale of its Romanian portfolio to the real estate investment division of Morgan Stanley in association with a group of Israeli investors highly active on the real estate market, represented by David Hay and, respectively, Indotek Group, one of the largest Hungarian investment groups. The transaction included America House, a landmark A-class office building in Bucharest (acquired by Morgan Stanley together with the Israelian real estate investors), and the Promenada Mall Târgu Mureș (acquired by Indotek Group) (September 2019).

The Banking & Finance and Capital Markets Practice

• Advising Citigroup in relation to a new EUR 200 million bonds issue by Digi Communications/ RCS&RDS (February 2019);
• Advising Citigroup Global Markets Limited, Erste Group Bank AG, ING Bank N.V, JP Morgan Securities plc and Société Générale in relation to the EUR 3 billion Eurobonds issued by the Romanian state (March 2019);
• Advising Alpha Bank Romania in relation to the first covered bond programme established in Romania, for the amount of EUR 1 billion (April 2019);
• Advising NE Property B.V. in relation with the implementation of the EUR 1.5 billion Guaranteed Euro Medium Term Programme guaranteed by NEPI Rockcastle plc, as well as in relation to the launching of the 2.625% EUR 500 million bonds issue due 2023 under the programme (May 2019).

Clifford Chance has been present in Romania since 2006 and operates now as Clifford Chance Badea. The Bucharest office is fully integrated in the global network and is frequently involved in complex transactions such as syndicated loans, project finance, restructurings, Eurobonds and shares issues on international capital markets, derivatives, companies' acquisitions by strategic investors or private equity funds, infrastructure and motorway projects, real estate investments etc., as well as domestic and international litigation and arbitration.

For further details about Clifford Chance, please access www.cliffordchance.com.