Gide offers a "one-stop-shop" service, representing multinational and regional clients alike in their cross-border transactions and foreign investments in South-East Europe. Our teams based in Poland, Russia and Turkey can rely on the expertise of our Central and Eastern Europe Desk, composed of lawyers having practised several years in the region.
Our expertise is tailored to the areas of law we have identified as being the most commonly requested by our clients, namely:
In the countries where Gide has no direct presence - namely the Western Balkans (Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia and Kosovo), the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia - our lawyers can also work with a network of local partner law firms, which have developed close ties with government departments and agencies and are therefore in an ideal position to guide our clients through all their administrative procedures and formalities and to afford them the benefit of their longstanding contacts.
In Romania, for instance, we work with correspondent law firm Leroy şi Asociaţii SCA set up by former Gide lawyers.
Experience includes:
- Advising France Telecom on the privatisation of Telecom Serbia, a case involving three jurisdictions: Serbia, Bosnia and Montenegro
- Advising a French car manufacturer on privatisation and post-privatisation operations of the leading Romanian car manufacturer
- Advising a world leader in the market research industry on the acquisition of several Balkans-based market research companies, notably in Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Slovenia
- Advising a leading international media company on the merger control aspects of a regional cross-border television channel acquisition. The assignment included an analysis of the related sector-specific regulations in Hungary, the Czech Republic, Romania and Slovakia
- Advising a German group active in the energy sector on acquiring the majority of the capital in Distrigaz Nord, one of the two national gas distribution companies owned by the Romanian state, and on restructuring its activities post-privatisation
- Advising a Swiss-French investment group on the creation of a regional joint venture structure to operate the wholesale and distribution of the GANT clothing brand in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia
- Advising Intermarché, a French distribution group, on the potential sale of its operations in the Balkans including Romania, Serbia, Bosnia and Kosovo. Gide Budapest and Gide Paris jointly coordinated the transaction in several jurisdictions
- Advising a European insurance group on the acquisition of three Romanian insurance companies and on the post-acquisition merger of these companies
- Gide Budapest and Gide Paris advised a major French industrial client on competition law compliance issues: a mock dawn raid was carried out in Hungary and the Czech Republic, and a comprehensive report was drafted following the analysis of interviews and documents collected
- Advising the world's leading dairy group on the acquisition of a Romanian company active in the dairy sector
