RTPR Allen & Overy advises Elefant Online and its shareholders in a deal through which Emerging Europe Accession Fund advised by Axxess Capital enters the shareholding structure of the company.
RTPR Allen & Overy has advised Elefant Online and its shareholders, Millennium Gold Resources and Catalyst Romania, in relation to the investment of Emerging Europe Accession Fund advised by Axxess Capital and a supplementary investment from its minority shareholder Catalyst Romania. Elefant Online is a well-known online retailer in Romania. The transaction will be closed subject to approval by the Competition Council.
The RTPR Allen & Overy team included Alina Stăvaru (Counsel), Laurențiu Tisescu (Associate) and Evelin Grigore (Junior Associate) for transaction documents, as well as Roxana Ionescu (Counsel), Andrei Mihul (Associate) and Andrei Lupu (Junior Associate) for competition clearance. Alina Stăvaru, Counsel, declared: “We are happy to have once again advised our clients on this transaction and we would like to thank them for their trust. At the end of 2014 we assisted Catalyst Romania in relation to their initial investment in Elefant, and now we had the chance to advise the shareholders and the company on this new investment. As previously stated, such a transaction represents the recognition of the success of a local business and we are looking forward to seeing its success at international level.”
The RTPR Allen & Overy lawyer who coordinated this transaction is Alina Stăvaru. In April Alina received the title “Deal Maker of the month” granted by BizLawyer for another three M&A deals completed at the beginning of the year, in which she advised Catalyst Romania and Technology in Central and Eastern Europe. Marius Ghenea, Investment Director of 3TS Capital Partners, praises Alina’s skills: “During the past two years, 3TS Capital significantly increased its investment pace in Romania, both through Catalyst Romania as well as through other regional funds of 3TS, and one of our best kept secrets was undeniably Alina Stăvaru and her team at RTPR Allen & Overy. (…) I can say without any doubt that without Alina certain projects would have simply stopped, and their completion was possible thanks to the innovative solutions proposed and implemented by Alina and Allen & Overy, and on the other hand I know that Alina’s entire activity is extremely thorough and what she does is very well done.”
Private equity fund Catalyst Romania has been extremely active in Romania in the last two years, RTPR Allen & Overy advised the fund in relation to several investments in the IT and technology sector, such as Intelligent IT (the developers of the billing software SmartBill), Marketizator Friends (offering to online businesses conversion rate optimisation services, surveys, traffic segmentation and web personalisation), Vector Watch (the smart watches business), 123ContactForm (a software development company whose primary product is an online web form and survey builder), Green Horse Games (the developers of an online football gaming company).
RTPR Allen & Overy’s main areas of activity are: financing, mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, insolvency and restructuring, competition, labour law, intellectual property law, litigation and arbitration, and providing advice across a range of business sectors including energy, telecommunications, finance, real estate and the pharmaceutical industry.
Selected transactions in which RTPR Allen & Overy have been involved in the last 12 months are set out below:
• Enterprise Investors on the acquisition of “Noriel” group, the largest toys and games retailer in Romania
• Regina Maria, the healthcare services provider and Mid Europa Partners on the acquisition of Ponderas Hospital
• Advent International Corporation on the sale of Centrul Medical Unirea (the healthcare services provider “Regina Maria”) to Mid Europa Partners
• Enterprise Investors in relation to the sale of Smartree Romania, an important player on the market providing outsourcing payroll and personnel administration process services
• PAI partners, owner of R&R Ice Cream on its joint venture with Nestlé to form a new entity which will be called Froneri, and will cover markets in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, South America and the Philippines, and will employ more than 15,000 people
• Tymbark (Maspex Wadowice) on the acquisition of Rio Bucovina, the Romanian mineral water producer
• DE Master Blenders 1753 on the merger with Mondelez International to create Jacobs Douwe Egberts, the world’s leading pure-play coffee company with an annual turnover of USD 7 billion
Note to the editors:
1. Allen & Overy is an international legal practice with approximately 5,200 staff, including some 530 partners, working in 44 major worldwide.
2. RTPR was incorporated in 2004 and has been working in association with Allen & Overy since 2008. RTPR Allen & Overy has a team of 40 lawyers, including 5 partners: Costin Tărăcilă, Victor Pădurari, Alexandru Retevoescu, Mihai Ristici, Valentin Berea and also Prof Dr Lucian Mihai, Of counsel.
3. In this press release, “Allen & Overy” means Allen & Overy LLP and/or its affiliated undertakings.
4. In this press release, “RTPR Allen & Overy” means Radu Tărăcilă Pădurari Retevoescu SCA in association with Allen & Overy LLP.
5. Allen & Overy has been operating in the CEE region since 1991, when its first office opened in Warsaw. Since then, it has expanded its operations to include Prague, Budapest, Bucharest, Bratislava and Moscow, all of which are renowned in the market for top quality legal advice combined with local commercial understanding, as well as for their integrity and their pro-active approach to matters. Additionally, Allen & Overy signed an exclusive association with the leading full-service Romanian law firm Radu Tărăcilă Pădurari Retevoescu SCA (RTPR), effective from July 2008, expanding the number of CEE offices in which we are able to provide local law advice to six.
