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Deals December 2019

Kinstellar advises on acquisition of Haná Olomouc retail centre

 Kinstellar has successfully advised Star Capital Investments on the sale of the Haná Olomouc retail centre to CZECH REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT FUND. The centre welcomes more than 3 million visitors each year; long-standing tenants include sporting goods stores SportsDirect and A3 Sport, clothing stores KiK, Takko and Pepco as well as footwear store CCC. The centre is connected to the Tesco retail chain. The Kinstellar team was led by Jan Juroška (Partner) and included Martin Holub (Associate) and Veronika Rožnovská (Junior Associate). For more information, please contact Jan Juroška, Partner, at

Deals December 2019

Kinstellar’s team in Ukraine advises local agribusiness MAIS on the establishment of joint venture with a strategic US investor, Remington Seeds

Kinstellar has acted as Ukrainian legal counsel to the leading Ukrainian seed producer MAIS in connection with the establishment of a joint venture with a strategic investor, the US company Remington Seeds – the largest third-party seed producer in the world. The new joint venture, SEED CORP, will provide a full range of high-quality seed production services to international and domestic agricultural clients. It is located in the heart of Ukraine’s black soil region and has more than 5,000 hectares of irrigated agricultural land. SEED CORP owns one of the most modern seed production plants in Eastern Europe. Commenting on the transaction, Iryna Nikolayevska, Counsel and Head of Kinstellar’s M&A and Corporate

Deals December 2019

Kinstellar advises DEG on USD 20 million credit facility for Astarta, a top-5 agricultural business in Ukraine

Kinstellar has acted as Ukrainian legal counsel to the German development finance institution DEG – Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH, a subsidiary of KfW Bankengruppe, headquartered in Cologne, Germany, in connection with a long-term facility of up to USD 20 million for Astarta Group. Established in 1993, Astarta is a major Ukrainian agricultural business, listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Astarta is now operating around 240 thousand hectares of farm land in Ukraine and is one of the leading national grain, oilseeds, sugar and milk producers. Part of DEG’s investment will be directed at modernisation of Astarta’s production equipment, aiming to further reduce consumption of natural resources

Insights December 2019

Staff leasing regulated for the first time in Serbia

After more than 15 years since staff leasing was introduced in practice in Serbia, the Serbian parliament finally adopted the first law regulating this type of hiring – the Staff Leasing Law (the “Law”). The implementation of the Law requires companies that are using this type of hiring to change their budgets and business models, to change their systematisation of jobs and internal policies on benefits and awards, and to renegotiate their arrangements with staff leasing agencies. However, the deadline for such all-encompassing changes is apparently too soon, as the Law takes effect from 1 March 2020. In this article we will present the most important new requirements introduced by the Law, areas requiring

Insights December 2019

Spotlight on Uzbekistan: Kinstellar’s regular look at the Uzbek market

Spotlight on Uzbekistan: Kinstellar’s regular look at the Uzbek market LAW “ON PAYMENTS AND PAYMENT SYSTEMS” On November 1st the President Mirziyoyev signed the law “On Payments and Payments Systems” (the “Law”). The Law will enter into force on February 2, 2020, and will considerably expand the regulation of payment systems. It will also replace the Law “On Electronic Payments” of 2005. The Law introduces the concept of systemic important systems, which will be subject to tighter control to ensure the safety of the financial sector. It also defines the licensing requirements and the responsibilities of payment operators, payment agents, and payment organisations, as well as the standards

Insights December 2019

5G Spectrum Auctions in Kinstellar Jurisdictions

The 5G rollout is a hot topic throughout Europe, with the anticipated deployment due shortly, and availability in the EU expected from 2020. The 5G infrastructure will open up a wide range of new possibilities in a variety of sectors, including manufacturing, health, energy, automotive, media and entertainment. This analysis provides an overview of the status of 5G deployment and the tenders of frequencies suitable for 5G technology in the following Kinstellar Jurisdictions: the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.   S tatus of 5G Auction Expected date of auction

Insights December 2019

The ‘Good Old’ Internal Market Order: The Industrial and Economic Agenda of the von der Leyen Commission and what Businesses in Central and Eastern Europe can Expect

The new European Commission led by Ursula von der Leyen took office on 2 December. Among the challenges it faces is the daunting task of restoring Europe’s competitiveness and economic prowess by completing the full integration of its internal market and strengthening Europe’s industrial and technology base. How Thierry Breton, the new commissioner in charge of shaping and implementing the European Union’s industrial policy and market regulations, plans to attain those objectives is summarised in the overview below. For further insights on the von der Leyen Commission’s economic and regulatory priorities, please refer to our client briefing on the industrial, digital and competition agendas of Executive Vice

News November 2019

Counsel Andriy Nikiforov moderates a roundtable on supervised debt restructuring procedures organised by the UBA

On 20 November 2019, Andriy Nikiforov, Counsel in the Kyiv office and Chair of the Banking, Finance and Insurance Committee of the Ukrainian Bar Association (UBA), moderated a roundtable organised by the UBA that was dedicated to recent changes in law having the impact on two types of supervised debt restructuring processes available under Ukraine law – financial restructuring and court supervised pre-insolvency financial rehabilitation of a debtor. Financial restructuring mechanism was developed with the support of the EBRD as an alternative to a court supervised process and is administered under the supervision of a body comprised of appointees from the National Bank, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economy

News November 2019

Kinstellar co-organises conference on the implementation in Hungary of the ISO 37001 anti-corruption standard

Ákos Nagy, Partner in Kinstellar’s Budapest office and co-head of the firm’s Compliance, Risk and Sensitive Investigations (CRSI) practice, and his colleague Áron Barta gave a presentation on 14 November 2019 at a conference co-organised by Kinstellar to discuss the implementation in Hungary of the ISO 37001 standard on Anti-Corruption Management Systems. The event, co-organised by Ernst & Young (EY) and the Hungarian Bureau of Standardization (MSZT), was well attended and attracted many corporate executives, compliance professionals, lawyers and public sector executives. During their presentation Ákos Nagy and Áron Barta emphasised that the ISO 37001 standard provides a flexible prevention, identification

News November 2019

Peter Kováč leads expert medical congress in Bratislava co-sponsored by Kinstellar

Peter Kováč, Of Counsel and leader of the Life Sciences & Healthcare practice in Kinstellar’s Bratislava office, served as lead organiser for the expert medical congress “Legal, Forensic and Economic Aspects of the Medical Profession”, which took place in Bratislava on 14 November 2019. The congress, co-sponsored by medical education specialists SOLEN, forensic.sk and Kinstellar, is organised for medical doctors and other healthcare professionals in Slovakia and is officially recognised by the Slovak Health Care Surveillance Authority as an expert event. Peter opened the event with a welcome speech outlining the goals of the congress and gave a presentation on the criminal implications of recording false

Insights November 2019

New obligations under the Slovak Cyber Security Act

The Slovak Cyber Security Act (Act No. 69/2018 Coll., the “Act”) defines the minimum requirements to ensure cyber security in Slovakia. The Act applies to operators of essential services, i.e., to entities in key sectors, including banking, electronic communications, energy and healthcare[1], and to digital service providers. While the Act focuses on providers of services that are essential for the proper functioning of society and the economy, its measures may also apply to smaller companies in certain sectors. For instance, in healthcare the Act applies to (1) healthcare providers listed in Annex 1 of the Act, defined as “any persons or any other entity legally providing healthcare in the territory of a Member

Insights November 2019

Ukraine allows private sector involvement in space activities

Ukraine’s space industry has entered a new era. On 25 October 2019 the President signed the recently approved Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine on the State Regulation of Space Activities”. The main purpose of the new legislation is to commercialise space activities in Ukraine, which until now were reserved for state operators. The changes take effect on 29 January 2020, with certain provisions taking effect in October next year. Ukraine was once a powerhouse of the Soviet space industry and was an active space user after gaining independence in 1991. Afterwards, the Ukrainian State Space Agency participated in numerous space projects such as Sea Launch, Land Launch, Dnipro and Twinning Space