Dentons has enhanced its CEE presence in Budapest with the hire of White & Case partners István Réczicza, Rob Irving and Edward Keller who join alongside 30 local partners, associates and other legal professionals.
The use of a Cyprus International Trust (CIT) as a business vehicle
Andri Tsangarou and Andrianna Solomonides of Kinanis LLC discuss a new use for the CIT.
The economic and business instability of recent years, stemming from the worldwide economic crisis as well as widespread uncertainty and increased national scrutiny, have changed the rules of the business game dramatically. The international investor is faced with the need to seek additional safeguards towards business assets, as well as the need to provide a stable and unimpeded environment against any internal or external threats.
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Europe’s credit markets – the future is not where it used to be
Ashurst’s Mark Vickers and Helen Burton assess a seismic shift in Europe’s leveraged debt markets
For many participants in Europe’s leveraged market, 2014 on first impressions heralded something approaching a new normal. According to data from 3i, Debt Management, leverage debt issuance in 2014 reached a total of €150bn; leveraged loan issuance was €78.4bn, the highest volume since 2007; and European high yield had another record-breaking year with total issues of €72bn. The European CLO market performed similarly strongly, raising €14.5bn, the third-strongest year of issuance on record. But behind the semblance of a market re-asserting its momentum, a number of fundamental features are coming together to divert the market’s direction of travel. And these changes have potentially far-reaching implications for law firms engaged in the European leveraged landscape.
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Game theories – many approaches as European firms tackle the City
Rising transactional activity has given European firms in the City renewed confidence but playing in London remains a tricky game.
In April 2014, Iberian leader Cuatrecasas Gonçalves Pereira moved into empty London office space rented out by its French ally Gide Loyrette Nouel as part of the development of the firms’ referral alliance established two years previously. Located in London’s financial district at 125 Old Broad Street, Cuatrecasas was the third European law firm to take up space in the building, moving to the 14th floor; the previous year Italian practice Chiomenti had moved in one floor above after leaving its former offices in Mayfair.
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Return of the black dog – Hard times return for Cyprus’ legal community
Wind back 12 months and the mood from the Cypriot legal community was undeniably improving. The island was meeting the terms of its €10bn bailout from Europe, following near economic collapse in 2013; the discovery of gas reserves offshore looked particularly favourable; and even the Turkish and Cypriot halves of the country had begun reviving stalled peace talks with the aim of once and for all reuniting the island.
Once again, though less happily this time, what a difference a year makes. Twenty four months on from the EU-imposed haircut, a feeling of pessimism has returned to Cyprus – certainly among its legal elite.
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Aftershocks – hard decisions for Swiss lawyers amid a turbulent market
When even that most venerable of Swiss industries, watch-making, comes under threat, you know the country has a problem. But this proved to be the case in the early weeks of 2015: global brand Swatch saw its share price slump 15% after the Swiss National Bank (SNB) announced on 15 January that it would abandon the cap on the Swiss franc against the euro that it first introduced in September 2011. Keeping the franc at CHF1.20 to the euro had became increasingly expensive for the SNB, as it sold its own currency and bought up euros, sterling, US and Canadian dollars and yen, usually in the form of government bonds.
Many were shocked by the move, which has left investors worrying that with the CHF now floating against the euro, Swiss companies will struggle to maintain export levels. Swatch chief executive Nick Hayek called the decision ‘a tsunami’ for Switzerland’s economy. Mark Haefele, chief investment officer of UBS, has estimated that the policy will cost Swiss exporters close to CHF5bn (£3.3bn), equivalent to 0.7% of Swiss economic output.
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Stuck in the middle – CEE advisers buffeted from pressures from east and west
On a Sunday night in mid-November last year, people gathered on the streets of Bucharest in their thousands to celebrate the choice of Klaus Iohannis as Romania’s next president; a liberal thinker and the first person from the country’s ethnic German Protestant minority to be elected. With a voting turnout of 62%, the highest in 14 years, Iohannis’s appointment was considered a surprise for this conservative, majority-Eastern Orthodox country.
While in essence a protest vote against the incumbent government and its socialist prime minister Victor Ponta, who ran a staunchly nationalist campaign, Iohannis’ election may well prove to be an asset for the nation. The centre-right leader’s plans to modernise Romania include establishing an anti-corruption regime – the country is widely regarded as among the most corrupt in Europe – focusing on the rule of law, safeguarding the independence of the judiciary and, equally important, winning western investment (well before the election, Romania regained its investment credit rating for the first time in six years from Standard & Poor’s). Most importantly, Iohannis’ election signals the increasingly progressive mood of the Romanian public, which is good news for the domestic and international law firms operating there.
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Aiming for 80 jurisdictions: EY law launches in Sweden with Stockholm office
Ernst & Young’s (EY) legal team has launched in Sweden with the hire of a six member team in Stockholm, including two partners from Swedish commercial law firm Delphi, completing its coverage of Scandinavia.
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‘It was necessary to be present in the financial capital of Europe’: Spain’s Pérez-Llorca set to launch London office
Spanish firm Pérez-Llorca has made a key investment into the City and is set to launch a London office at the end of this year, after choosing what it described as ‘Europe’s finance capital’ in a bid to grow its financial practice.
Chadbourne closes Kiev arm as Freshfields duo set up in Barcelona
Political tension and economic turbulence have seen more law firms retrench in the wider European region, with Chadbourne & Parke and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer both confirming office closures. US firm Chadbourne last month confirmed that it was closing its Kiev office, a move which saw Dentons benefit as it snapped up Kiev-based corporate partner Adam Mycyk. Meanwhile, a pair of Freshfields lawyers have established an IP/IT specialist boutique following the closure of the Magic Circle firm’s Barcelona office in April this year.
Mycyk, who is also the former managing partner for CMS Cameron McKenna’s Kiev office, will join Dentons as a partner in its corporate practice just 18 months after moving to Chadbourne.
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