Author: natalia

act legal Austria supports the restructuring of the public transport in Klagenfurt am Wörthersee. In order to comply with the requirements of EU law, it was necessary to give the entire bus traffic of the state capital Klagenfurt am Wörthersee a completely new legal structure. “The exciting challenge was to create an in-house construction that would on the one hand meet the complex requirements of state aid and public procurement law and at the same time form a corporate framework that best supports the city’s future goals, the necessary financial flows and a tax-optimised solution“, says WMWP act legal Austria Partner Dr Martin Wiedenbauer, who headed the legal team.

On the basis of a framework agreement that was concluded with Stadtwerke Klagenfurt Aktiengesellschaft following corresponding resolutions by the bodies of the state capital Klagenfurt am Wörthersee, the entire mobility operation was spun off into a separate KMG Klagenfurt Mobil GmbH. The city then acquired a stake in this company. As of December 2019, KMG will handle the entire scheduled bus service of the state capital Klagenfurt am Wörthersee under the new legal structure and is ideally equipped to master the future challenges of decarbonization while at the same time making local public transport more attractive.

act legal Germany supports ADAC with the launch of its new online travel portal. It bundles the travel agency activities of the 18 ADAC regional clubs in a global web presence – not only for members.

Dr. Florian Wäßle, LL.M. and Anna Gatzweiler support the largest automobile club in Europe with the preparation, negotiation and review of all necessary contracts, including IT project contracts, provider contracts and coordination with all regional associations and the ADAC e.V. in Munich as well as all contractual partners and service providers.

act legal Poland (BSWW) has consulted Heli Aviation Service Sp. z o.o. on the purchase of the state-of-the-art AW169 helicopter manufactured by Leonardo S.p.A., an Italian company that is the worldwide industry leader (formerly AgustaWestland). Belonging to the AWFamily of products, the AW169 is the latest-generation 4.5 tonne class twin-engine helicopter.

Lawyers from act legal Poland were supporting Heli Aviation Service Sp. z o.o. throughout the process of helicopter acquisition. The scope of services included support in negotiations and deal closing, as well as delivery and registration of the first AW169 model in Poland. The project was handled by Marek Wojnar, attorney-at-law and one of the Managing Partners leading the law firm’s Italian Desk. He was supported by Magdalena Piotrowska, trainee legal counsel.

“We are pleased with the confidence our partners placed in us. Purchase of a helicopter is generally a challenging transaction, even more so when it has to be carried out under complex actual or legal circumstances. In this case, we had to cooperate (among others) with a partnering law firm from the UK. This is yet another example of a comprehensive range of activities taken by our Italian Desk which does not only work with Italian investors in Poland, but also supports Polish investors in their transactions in Italy,” says Marek Wojnar.

In April a new member belonging to the Wallis-group entered into the Hungarian car-sharing market, which provides its exclusive services as a member of the internationally recognized and well-known DriveNow-franchise that has formerly proved in many European countries.

From act legal Hungary Dr. Márton Karika (managing partner, attorney-at-law), Dr. Gábor Horváth (attorney-at-law) and Dr. Tibor Nyitrai (junior associate) assisted DriveNow with the preparation of the complete legal documentation necessary for the Hungarian market entry and service operation.

act legal Poland (BSWW) has advised on Rank Progress’ sale of over 8 hectares of investment land worth more than PLN 75m net.

On May 09, 2019, Rank Progress S.A. entered into another amending annex to the investment agreement with Vantage Development S.A., aimed at defining the rules and stages of a joint investment project involving a residential estate with complementary retail and office functions, i.e. Port Popowice in Wrocław. The document specifies the principles of joint venture’s acquisition of perpetual usufruct to land and partners’ additional financial contributions.

Additionally, act legal Poland was supporting Rank Progress S.A. with respect to return assignment of the investment land by BOŚ S.A.

Michał Wielhorski, Managing Partner, acted as the team leader. The team was made up of Mateusz Prokopiuk, Senior Associate, and Małgorzata Wąsowska, Partner and Head of Tax.

“We have been advising Rank Progress from the very start of its joint venture with Vantage Development, covering the highly ambitious and unique project of Port Popowice,” says Michał Wielhorski.

Port Popowice combines a former inland port with sophisticated architecture, contemporary design and functional spaces. The project, whose implementation is going to take roughly 10 years, involves development of approx. 2,500 apartments, modern office areas (14,500 m2) and commercial premises (17,000 m2). The renewed dock is going to be the heart of the whole project.

act legal Germany advises Tristan Fund on the acquisition of a five-storey office with a nine-storey tower section for around €64 million. The property with a rental area of around 24,000 m² is located in Heidelberg’s Bahnstadt, which is the town’s most established central business district. In addition, research and development areas are available in three separate halls. Tristan Capital Partners aquired the commercial property from Roland Ernst Grundstücks-Fonds 8 GmbH & Co. KG, Heidelberg – a former Falk-fond company.

Constantin Plenge, Executive Director at Tristan, said in Tristan’s press release: “Heidelberg is a very attractive office market for Tristan’s institutional investor clients, as in recent years the city has been characterised by low vacancy rates, robust rental growth and rising capital values. This investment is located in the prime office district and offers significant opportunities to add further value through active asset management.”

The transaction was structured as an asset deal. One of the main difficulties of the transaction was that one of the anchor tenants in the property had a right of first refusal on two of the three halls, which he has since exercised, which now requires a division of the complex technical infrastructure of the property.

The team of act legal Germany, AC Tischendorf, was headed by Dr. Tara Kamiyar-Müller and Dr. Matthias Müller, MBA, who were supported by Jessica Zenz-Spitzweg.

The renowned Compliance expert Dr. Thomas Altenbach has become part of act legal Germany in April 2019.

He claims: “I am very much looking forward to working at act legal Germany. Together with a great team, we want to establish tailor-made solutions for compliance and corporate defence and further strengthen the firm’s visibility in this area.”

Dr. Thomas Altenbach is specialized in the conception and implementation of compliance management systems, in supporting the implementation of digital solutions connected to AI (LegalTech) as well as advising prestigious technology, manufacturing or financial services companies on corporate defence.

He built his reputation as head of legal and compliance at Daimler and as head of litigation and internal investigations Germany and later EMEA Financial Crime Compliance at Deutsche Bank.

External press releases (in German only):

• Article in Juve
• Article in LTO

act legal Germany “distinguishes itself strongly from other law firms through its personal support and the practicability of its solutions” – we are very happy about the recommendations in The Legal500 EMEA 2019 in “restructuring” and “employment”. Congratulations to the recommended lawyers Dr. Sven Tischendorf, MBA, Dr. Stephan Schwilden, MBA, Dr. Matthias Müller, MBA and Fabian Brocke, LL.M.

The Legal500 also underlines the importance of act legal: “with the formation of a partnership alliance with act legal in May 2017, the team’s workload has become increasingly international”.

Read the full ranking for employment here and for restructuring here.

In September, BABEG will open Austria’s first “5G Playground” in Lakeside Park in cooperation with mobile operator A1.

The test laboratory called “5G Playground” provides for the technological environment for the development of various applications, products, processes and applications in connection with the new, superfast mobile radio standard. The test environment will be available to research and educational institutions, SMEs and start-ups to research or further develop products and applications.

Martin Wiedenbauer supported the BABEG team in the legal structuring of the cooperation.

act legal Austria receives recognition by JUVE (03/2019) for their specialities business in advising Austrian financial institutions on reorganization management, rescission, credit security, insolvency law and outsourcing. Since 2016, act legal Austria gained additional competencies especially in Fintech advice (also on supervisory law) through the onboarding of Dr. Roman Hager and his former activity at Raiffaisenbank International.

As a strong regional boutique law firm, act legal Austria continually gains more and more international mandates through their membership with the pan-European alliance act legal.