banking & financial services regulatory news

Matthias Pressler, member of Schoenherr's banking, finance and capital markets practice in Vienna, was promoted to counsel as of 1 October 2020. Pressler joined Schoenherr in 2015, and is an expert in financial services regulation, covering both transactional work as well as contentious and non-contentious regulatory advisory matters and administrative (criminal) proceedings. 

Schoenherr advised BNP PARIBAS (Suisse) S.A. ("BNP") as a facility agent and lender; Citibank NA, London Branch as a lender; and Black Sea Trade and Development Bank as a lender, on the Bulgarian legal aspects of a EUR 90m syndicated credit facility extended to Oliva AD ("Oliva") and Buildcom EOOD ("Buildcom"), as well as on the establishment of a Bulgarian security package for the facility.

Schoenherr advised UNIQA Insurance Group AG, one of the leading insurance groups in Austria and CEE, on its EUR 800m in aggregate notes issuances that closed on 9 July 2020.

Article first published on November 11 on hotnews.ro

Se împlinește mai bine de un an de când Ministerul Finanțelor Publice a lansat în dezbatere publică proiectul de lege privind reglementarea fondurilor de investiții alternative (Legea FIA). La acel moment, reprezentanții entităților publice sau private implicate în piața de capital din România subliniau cât de importantă este adoptarea cât mai rapidă a acestei legi. Această inițiativă legislativă nu a venit ca urmare a necesității implementării unor directive europene, ci a fost demersul legiuitorilor naționali, care considerau că fondurile alternative trebuie să aibă un cadru legal clar cu privire la autorizarea și funcționarea lor.

First published on Ziarul Financiar, 25.10.2019

După BNR, şi ASF vine cu măsuri mai stricte de cunoaştere a clientelei, de formalizare a procedurilor interne şi de derulare a evaluării riscului de spălare a banilor şi finanţare a terorismului, arată o analiză.  

The revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2), applicable since 13 January 2018, brought significant changes to the payment markets in the EU. In particular, PSD2 requires certain payment services providers (PSPs) to apply strong customer authentication (SCA, also referred to as two-factor authentication) in remote electronic transactions. 

Schoenherr, acting as lead counsel for the financing, successfully advised Aves One AG ("Aves") on the financing of the acquisition of the NACCO/CIT Group. 

choenherr si Asociatii was recognised for its outstanding transaction advice in the financial services sector in 2017 by Romania's leading business journal Ziarul Financiar. 

Schoenherr successfully advised Aves One AG ("Aves One") on its EUR 155m senior facility refinancing by entering into a new facility agreement with significantly improved commercial terms arranged by a consortium of leading German banks. 

Schoenherr has advised the UniCredit Group on establishing two exclusive strategic partnerships with Allianz and Generali for the distribution of insurance products for individuals and small-businesses in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Slovenia announced on 5 June 2018 (see here)

Schoenherr has advised alongside Polish lead counsel Gessel on establishing a strategic partnership between Avia Prime and Czech investment firm Hartenberg Holding ("Hartenberg"). 

Schoenherr's financial services team in Prague advised EVO Payments International ("EVO") on the creation of a long-term strategic alliance with MONETA Money Bank ("MONETA") for payment acceptance services to the bank's retail customers.

Schoenherr has advised and represented the core shareholders of Cubic (London) Limited ("Cubic"), including San Gabriel Privatstiftung, and T.R. Privatstiftung, as indirect controlling stockholders in C-QUADRAT Investment AG ("C-QUADRAT"), on the sale of the majority shareholding in Cubic, and thus C-QUADRAT, to the HNA Group (International) Asset Management Co., Limited, Hong Kong ("HNA"). HNA is part of the HNA Group, a leading Chinese diversified industrial group. C-QUADRAT is an independent asset management company listed on the Vienna stock exchange.

Schoenherr has advised Adriaplin d.o.o. ("Adriaplin"), the Slovenian subsidiary of Eni S.p.A., on the acquisition of Mestni Plinovodi d.o.o. ("Mestni Plinovodi"), a local natural gas distribution network operator and gas supplier, from a consortium of sellers consisting of gas distributors Ireti and ACSM-AGAM from Italy and Istrabenz Plini from Slovenia.

Schoenherr Bucharest received five out of nine Client Choice Awards from the International Law Office ("ILO") in 2018. 

Schönherr hat die B&C Holding GmbH ("B&C") bei der Gewährung einer Hybridkapital-Linie an die börsenotierte Semperit AG Holding ("Semperit") von bis zu EUR 150 Mio beraten. 

Schoenherr advised Deutsche Private Equity Management III ("DPE") on its acquisition of leaflet printing business Euro-Druckservice ("EDS") from a consortium of three company shareholders. 

On 26 September 2017, the European Banking Authority ("EBA") and the European Securities and Markets Authority ("ESMA") published the final report of their joint guidelines on the assessment of the suitability of members of the management body and key function holders in accordance with Article 91 (12) of Directive 2013/36/EU ("CRD IV") and Article 9 of Directive 2014/65/EU ("MiFID II") (the "Fit&Proper Guidelines").
The Fit&Proper Guidelines aim to harmonise and improve suitability assessments within the European financial sector, and to ensure sound governance in financial institutions in line with CRD IV and MiFID II.

Schoenherr si Asociatii was honoured by Romania's leading financial journal Ziarul Financiar with three awards during the eight edition of the Business Lawyers' Gala organised by the newspaper on 27 September in Bucharest. 

Schönherr hat die börsennotierte EVN AG ("EVN") beim Verkauf ihrer betrieblichen Pensionskasse, der EVN Pensionskasse AG ("EVN Pensionskasse"), an die VBV-Betriebliche Altersvorsorge AG ("VBV") beraten.

The Hungarian Parliament passed an act in June 2017 with the aim of improving Hungary's business competitiveness. Among other things, the amendment has changed the regulation of trusts and their management, hopefully for the better, since the past three years have shown that a lack of such experience still exists. 

Schoenherr has advised publicly traded, global sugar, starch and fruit processor AGRANA Beteiligungsverwaltungs-Aktiengesellschaft ("AGRANA") as issuer on its successful rights offering of 1,420,204 new shares, combined with a secondary offering of 500,000 existing AGRANA shares held by Südzucker AG, one of AGRANA's core shareholders. 
This is the first equity capital market ("ECM") transaction in the Austrian market in 2017, and the first deal of its kind in Austria following the entry into force of the European Market Abuse Regulation. The transaction had an overall deal volume of approximately EUR 192m.