April 2026 – Advent finalises the acquisition of TBI Bank across Bulgaria and Romania. Kinstellar together with Milbank as lead counsel assisted throughout the entire process, including obtaining regulatory approvals in Bulgaria and Romania for the relevant closing.
The acquisition was one of the most complex share acquisition filings involving a credit institution and supported the first bank acquisition approval issued directly by the ECB. The transaction also marks the first acquisition of a banking group headquartered in Bulgaria by a private equity fund in many years.
The transaction, initially announced in April 2025, was finalized after the European Central Bank (ECB) granted regulatory approval in mid-February 2026.
The deal was led by Milbank as international lead counsel, with Kinstellar supporting Advent across Romania and Bulgaria. Kinstellar covered relevant local law workstreams through to closing, including due diligence, local transactional aspects, regulatory matters and filings, foreign direct investment and antitrust filings.
The deal and the closing were coordinated by Zsuzsa Csiki (Partner, Co-Head of Corporate/M&A in Romania) from Romania, with the help of Mihai Stan (Managing Associate, M&A). In Bulgaria, the deal and the closing were led by Nina Tsifudina (Partner, Co-Head of Corporate/M&A in Bulgaria) and Svilen Issaev (Partner, Head of Banking & Finance in Bulgaria), with the support of Denitsa Kuzeva (Senior Associate, M&A) – ensuring seamless regulatory filing processes and obtaining the first-ever approval from the ECB directly, since Bulgaria joined the Euro zone.
In Romania, FDI filings were led by Catalin Graure (Counsel) and Marc Barabas (Associate).
The wider Romanian team included Cosmin Vasilescu (Managing Associate), Andrei Balus (Managing Associate), Razvan Constantinescu (Counsel), Alexandra Sofineti (Senior Associate), Vlad Simion (Managing Associate) and Andrei Salageanu (Senior Associate).
In Bulgaria, the wider team included Yasen Toshev (Associate), Simona Damyanova (Junior Associate), Nikolay Gergov (Senior Associate) and Antonio Dafinov (Junior Associate).
In Türkiye, for the merger filing, the team included Sinan Diniz (Partner), Simru Tayfun (Senior Associate), and Beyza Nur Arlı (Associate).