Romania: Schoenherr advises SIF Muntenia on sale of shares in BCR to Erste

Thus, Austrian Erste Group, the majority shareholder in BCR and SIF Muntenia entered into a series of agreements including a sale purchase agreement, a swap agreement and an option agreement in relation to SIF Muntenia's holding in BCR.

The Schoenherr team was led by Bucharest-Partner Narcisa Oprea, who was assisted by the Bucharest capital markets associate Veronica Alexeev and M&A Partner Markus Piuk. Markus Piuk commented: “The project was quite challenging as it needed to get signed under great time pressure and the structure is quite complicated, involving novel aspects of Austrian and Romanian law. The fact that Schoenherr handled both jurisdictions underlines the strength of our regional presence.”

Narcisa Oprea added: "Extensive negotiations between the parties led to the key commercial points of the transaction being agreed upon and finalised immediately prior to signing the contracts. But the sustained efforts of all parties contributed greatly to concluding the deal within the schedule envisaged at the start of negotiations.”

Erste was represented by Tuca Zbarcea si Asociatii (Romanian law) and Hauser & Partner (Austrian law).