Clifford Chance wins Mergermarket’s Central & Eastern European M&A Legal Adviser of the Year Award

Clifford Chance has been recognized as the Central & Eastern European M&A Legal Adviser of the Year at Mergermarket's annual European M&A Awards ceremony held in London, last week.

40 winners in European financial and legal advisory have been selected, following a rigorous judging process that included the analysis of Mergermarket's market-leading league tables and a scrutiny by a panel of expert judges.

The period under review is for deals announced between 1st October 2018 to 30th September 2019 - a full twelve months of activity. There is only one winner per category, which means an M&A Award from Mergermarket is true recognition of an outstanding year.

The Clifford Chance award confirms the firm's solid foothold and reputation in the region. Separately, Chambers Europe 2019 has ranked Clifford Chance as a Tier 1 firm in Corporate/M&A, as well as Banking & Finance in Central & Eastern Europe.

The Clifford Chance CEE team includes offices in Poland, Romania and the Czech Republic from where the firm also covers Slovakia.

Nadia Badea, Clifford Chance Partner and head of the Bucharest M&A Real Estate Practice, said: "We are an international company with a Tier 1 transactional and advisory practice that is constantly consolidating its presence in Central and Eastern Europe. The award given by Mergermarket acknowledges our performance and quality of the portfolio we build every day alongside our colleagues in the region and the global Clifford Chance network.”

Clifford Chance Badea, the local office of the global law firm, is currently advising on several confidential, high-profile transactions for the Romanian and regional market.  

Milestone projects recently advised by Clifford Chance Badea include:
•    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).
•    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.
•    Advising the 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.
•    Advising First Bank, owned by US-based investment fund J.C. Flowers & Co., in relation to its acquisition of Bank Leumi Romania, one year after the first transaction of the high-profile American investor on the Romanian Banking industry.
•    Advising Czech Media Invest (CMI) throughout the acquisition of the CEE radio assets of multinational media conglomerate Lagardère Group - a multijurisdictional project involving the Clifford Chance offices in Bucharest, Prague, Warsaw and Paris.