Biris Goran law firm could announce by the end of the year the conclusion of three real estate transactions amounting to approximately EUR 250 million. According to the company’s representatives, during the following two months, it is possible that major transactions are concluded, in which Biris Goran has provided legal advice to one of the parties. Among the deals nominated by the law firm, it is worth mentioning the acquisition of an equipment manufacturing company and three transactions involving the takeover of service and trade companies, amounting to an aggregate of approx. EUR 200 million.

Paradoxically, the international financial crisis could not have visibly affected the activity of Biris Goran’s lawyers. "Demand has not visibly decreased in our main sectors of activity: real estate, mergers and acquisitions, competition law and tax law. We are involved transactions, new mandates, with high values in all the aforesaid sectors. We notice however delays in completion due to impediments in obtaining financing ", stated Gabriel Biris (photo), one of the founding partners of the law firm. In one of such delayed transactions, the buyer, an investment fund, did not make the advance payment required for initiating the due diligence procedure because, in its turn, the fond postponed the listing of another company that was already purchased, due to market conditions.

"We are also involved in a transaction in which we have carried out the due diligence procedure and the buyer has withdrawn because the (foreign) financing bank has frozen financings", said the attorney.

Nevertheless, Biris says that, still, no decrease in the demand for legal services can be noticed in the market. "The market is not completely "frozen" and the well-established companies are busy working. It means that, also under such circumstances, the investors and Romanian contractors are able to see opportunities. Anyway, on a long term, the law firms shall have to diversify – unless they have already done so –their service offer and also focus on the "on-going" advice, respectively representing a client on a long term basis and not only in one transaction ", declared to us Gabriel Biris.

According to sources of the Liberal Democrat Party, quoted by Ziarul Financiar , Gabriel Biris (aged 39), partner in Biris Goran law and tax consulting firm and co-author of the governing program of Alianta D.A. PNL - PD, is currently in negotiations for joining the party.

During the first half of 2008, Biris Goran assisted a group of investment funds, represented in Romania by Ioannis Papalekas, a developer with vast expertise, in concluding two real estate transactions, which involved the sale of two office buildings: one to Eurobank REIC (EUR 40 million deal) and the other to RREEF (EUR 60 million deal). The sale of this building to RREEF represents the partial completion of the contractual understanding signed in May 2008 (the aggregate value of the transaction concluded in May 2008 exceeding EUR 340 million).

The two legal teams involved in these transactions were coordinated by Dan Visoiu and Gabriel Biris, both partners in Biris Goran law firm.

After only two years from its incorporation, Biris Goran already enjoys international recognition as one of the most important law firms in Romania, and was recommended for its expertise in: real estate, tax law, competition and mergers and acquisitions, by the most important publications in the field, such as: Chambers Europe, Legal 500 and PLC Which Lawyer.

Currently, Biris Goran has a team of 31 lawyers and tax consultants, also including a tax specialized department. Five of its lawyers are admitted to practice law in the United states of America and Canada.

The main income sources for Biris Goran are the real estate, corporate and banking & finance law, and it has also provided legal advice in the sale of America House and of Eurisko, a real estate consulting company. The firm was established in mid-2006, in full real estate boom, and therefore, a large part of its activity was carried out in this sector, and this trend was maintained also in 2007 and 2008.

BizLawyer Team