Topic: Banking

act legal Czech Republic has been ranked in the IFLR1000 for 2023

Posted on by Gabriela Fuchsová

The prestigious rating agency IFLR1000 has ranked act legal Czech Republic (act Řanda Havel Legal) among notable law firms in the Czech Republic for the past 12 years. In 2023, once again act Řanda Havel Legal is one of the recommended law firms in the areas of Mergers & Acquisitions, Banking & Project Financing, Restructuring & Insolvency and Projects & Energy.

IFLR1000 carries out independent market research on the legal services market in the financial law sector and identifies leading law firms in individual countries and legal areas. act Řanda Havel Legal has repeatedly been ranked amongst established law firms active in the Czech Republic in financial law on an international scale.

Complete ratings here

Wachstumsstrategie: act legal Germany berät innovatives FinTech Unternehmen fintus bei europaweiter Expansion

Posted on by Jessica Zenz-Spitzweg

Vergangenen Freitag hat AnaCap Financial Partners, London („AnaCap“) – einer der führenden europäischen Private-Equity Investoren für den Technologie- und Finanzdienstleistungssektor eine Mehrheitsbeteiligung bei der fintus GmbH („fintus“) unterzeichnet.

fintus ist die führende Low-Code-Banking Plattform in Deutschland. Mit Low-Code-Banking reagieren Banken binnen Tagen auf Veränderungen anstatt auf lange Zyklen in der Software-Entwicklung angewiesen zu sein. Seit Gründung der Gesellschaft 2017 positioniert sich fintus erfolgreich als Anbieter mit seiner Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Platform „fintus Suite“ für die Automatisierung und Transformation von Banken und Finanzdienstleistern. Gegründet im Herzen der Finanzmetropole Frankfurt am Main und ohne die Unterstützung von Finanzinvestoren konnte fintus früh namenhafte Kunden gewinnen. Heute zählen bereits eine zweistellige Anzahl TIER 1-3 Banken in Deutschland zu den Kunden des Unternehmens.

AnaCap mit Sitz in London, investiert bereits langjährig und erfolgreich in FinTech Unternehmen der DACH-Region. Der Investition in fintus ging u.a. die Übernahme von WebID Solutions im September dieses Jahres voraus, die unter anderem ein Technlogiepartner von fintus ist.

Das fintus Managementteam um Gründer Benjamin Hermanns wird mit dem starken Finanzpartner AnaCap konsequent seine Internationalisierung vorantreiben und sein Leistungsportfolio erweitern.

Die Umsetzung der Transaktion hängt noch von üblichen Closing-Bedingungen ab.

zum Hintergrund

act legal: mit mehr als 3o0 Professionals in ganz Zentraleuropa bildet act legal mit anspruchsvoller nationaler sowie internationaler Rechtsberatung die attraktive Alternative zu internationalen Großkanzleien.

act legal Deutschland berät fintus seit Gründung und hat fintus umfassend in allen rechtlichen Belangen dieser komplexen Transaktion beraten.

Berater fintus

act legal Germany: Marcus Columbu (Finance, Federführung), Dr. Fabian Brocke, LL.M., (Corporate/M&A, Federführung); Dr. Thomas Block, MBA (Arbeitsrecht); Sarah Landsberg (Corporate/M&A).

IEG – Investment Banking Group: Mirko Heide, Patrick Schüler (Investment)

Berater AnaCap: Proskauer Rose und Norton Rose Fulbright (Recht), GCA Altium (corporate finance)

act legal Poland advises Adventum on the acquisition of Mercedes-Benz building

Posted on by Lisa Fortmüller

Adventum Group, an investment fund manager operating internationally, has acquired the Mercedes-Benz building in Warsaw.

act BSWW legal & tax provided Adventum with comprehensive legal assistance related to the transaction. The services rendered by the law firm included due diligence of the property, drafting transaction-related documents, and negotiation support.

The law firm also advised Adventum throughout the financing process related to this acquisition. Among others, it negotiated the terms and conditions of the facility agreement with the lender, i.e. Bayerische Landesbank.

The transactional team was led by Marta Kosiedowska (Partner) and Marek Wojnar (Managing Partner). The due diligence audit was prepared under the supervision of Katarzyna Marzec (Partner).

The financing team was led by Marta Kosiedowska (Partner), supported by Mariusz Grochowski (Senior Associate).

“It is the second project acquired by Adventum in Poland this year. In June, Adventum purchased Marynarska Point 1 in Warsaw, and we know that our client is far from having said its last word. We are pleased to have been given the opportunity to support Adventum on all of its Polish acquisitions so far,” says Marta Kosiedowska, Partner at act BSWW legal & tax.

“We are proud to witness the rapid growth of our client in Poland. Adventum acquired its first real property in Poland in July 2019, gradually expanding its portfolio which now consists of six prestigious office buildings located in Poland’s major cities,” adds Marek Wojnar, Managing Partner at act BSWW legal & tax.

Mercedes-Benz building is a modern office development which has served as the headquarters of companies from the Mercedes-Benz Group for many years.

Adventum Group is a group of boutique investment fund management companies focused on Central European real estate investments. The Group’s personnel includes highly experienced real estate professionals with CFA, NRW and MRICS qualifications, with a combined investment experience of 70+ years. The group has so far executed investments in the CEE region with a total value of over EUR 1.5bn.

Is your business in the Czech Republic adversely affected by coronavirus or respective preventive measures?

Posted on by Gabriela Fuchsová

Then, the Czech support loan program “COVID II” is just for you. The acceptance of applications for the program commences already tomorrow, on 2 April 2020. We will be happy to assist you with their express processing!

The Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic has announced another supporting loan program “COVID II”. It is designed to support small and medium enterprises and self-employed persons operating within the Czech Republic. Its purpose is to eliminate the impact of the coronavirus on the entrepreneurs in the Czech Republic. The program will enable access to operational financing. It is intended for those whose economic activities are restricted due to the coronavirus or related preventive measures.

The program has several advantages. The Czech-Moravian Guarantee and Development Bank will provide guarantee for commercial loans up to 80 % of the principal. It will also provide financial contributions to cover interests up to CZK 1 million. The guarantee period will be up to 3 years, free of charge. The maximum amount of the loan can be up to CZK 15 million.

Entrepreneurs can finance the costs of wages and energy, payments of rent, payments of supplier-customer invoices, pre-financing of receivables, or acquisition of material, inventory and other small assets.

The program is financed from the EU structural funds within the Operational Program Enterprise and Innovation for Competitiveness. Therefore, it is not intended for the implementation of projects in the capital city of Prague. However, applicants based in Prague may also apply if the funded establishment is located outside the capital city.

The program starts already on 2 April 2020. It can be expected that the funds from the program will run out rapidly. Therefore, we recommend to entrepreneurs to take fast action.

We offer you a legal assistance and representation in the express processing of documents and applications for receiving a guarantee for commercial loans. We offer our services for a special price of EUR 800 plus 0.25% from the amount of actually provided facility line (excluding VAT). We will be also pleased to provide you with legal assistance and representation in arranging commercial loans with the relevant banks. The price of these services is negotiated individually depending on the specific circumstances of the credit case.

If case of any questions regarding COVID II loan program, please do not hesitate to contact us. We will be happy to assist you.

Corona crisis special features of lending law from the banks‘ perspective

Posted on by Jessica Zenz-Spitzweg

On the occasion of the drastic restrictions imposed by the corona virus, the German government today passed the law to mitigate the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in civil, insolvency and criminal proceedings, which is to be passed by the Bundestag this week.

Changes by law

In addition to other temporary special provisions, the Act also contains a provision on a deferral of payment of at least three months for consumer loan agreements. Customers who are consumers and have concluded a consumer loan agreement with you before 15 March 2020 may suspend interest or repayment of principal amounts due between 1 April 2020 and 30 June 2020 for a period of three months. This is subject to the condition that the borrower suffers a loss of income due to the Corona crisis, which means that ‚it is unreasonable to expect the borrower to perform its payments. After this three-month period has expired, the payment obligation resumes. The deferral of the repayment obligation thus leads to a postponement of the contractual end of the loan term.

What do you need to do?

We recommend that you carefully examine the reasons given by customers to justify a suspension of repayment. In addition, you should set out in writing the agreement with the customer on the deferral of payment and document it in a comprehensible manner, including the customer’s evidence provided.

To whom do these provisions apply?

So far, the above provision only applies to consumer loan agreements. The law also provides for the possibility of extending the regulations to micro enterprises (up to ten employees and annual turnover or annual balance sheet total of less than EUR 2 million each) in the short term. We will keep you informed of current developments in this regard and will be happy to assist you with individual questions.

No termination of loan agreements without compensation

Some resourceful borrowers in the area of real estate loans have already announced that they will extraordinarily terminate their interest-linked loans with reference to the Corona crisis and that they do not intend to pay an early repayment fee for this.
We would be pleased to support you in enforcing your claims against such customers that are not justified.