BDV Batarelo Dvojkovic Vuchetich has advised Kommunalkredit Austria on a EUR 25 million facility for the Star Energy Group's transition strategy into geothermal energy and for enabling continued investment in the group’s oil and gas business.

Filip & Company has advised the significant shareholders of One United Properties on their sale of 234.2 million company shares to local and international institutional investors.

Clifford Chance Badea has advised the PIB Group on its acquisition of the Stein Bestasig Insurance Broker in Romania.

Rymarz Zdort Maruta has advised Polish state-owned company Weglokoks on its acquisition of an 80% stake in Port Polnocny from Belgian group Sea-Invest. DLA Piper advised the seller.

TGS Baltic has advised Coinvest Capital on liquidating its investment in Lithuanian crisp producer Chazz through the sale of its 26% stake to the company's founders and other shareholders.

Allen & Overy has advised Mutares SE & Co on its acquisition of Eltel Networks Energetyka and Eltel Networks Engineering. Greenberg Traurig advised seller Eltel AB on the deal.

MFW Fialek has advised the shareholder of specialized waste management company Bioproten on the full sale of the operation to Eneris. Grant Thornton advised Eneris.

BBH has successfully represented the Diamo state-owned enterprise in a dispute concerning its obligation to perform a contract worth over CZK 1 billion.

TGS Baltic has advised the investors, including Scale Wolf VC and Linas Sargautis, on participating in Vilnius-based Blackswan Space's EUR 760,000 pre-seed funding round.

NKO Partners has advised the IGEPA group on its acquisition of a 51% stake in Serbian company Oracal Polikarbonati from Dejan Karic, who will stay on with a 49% stake. Four Legal advised the seller.

Walless has advised the Typhoon Wealth Group Limited on its acquisition of Lithuania's Ambr Payments.

TGS Baltic has advised recycling company Eco Baltia on its acquisition – via its Latvijas Zalais Punkts subsidiary – of harmful and hazardous waste collection company Eko Osta.

Partners Janusz Dzianachowski and Marcin Schulz have become the new National Managing Partners at Linklaters Warsaw, taking over from Artur Kulawski, who has been at the firm's helm for the past 12 years.

Estonian law firm Lextal, Latvian law firm RER Lextal, and Lithuanian law firm ILAW Lextal have unveiled their new name and identity: Widen, "a Baltic law firm that sees itself as the Legal Jazz Company."

Former Senior Legal Counsel Can Aksoy has been appointed as Delivery Hero's Principal Legal Counsel M&A.

Former Turkiye Finans Katilim Bankasi Head of Legal Advisory Mehmet Tekergul has moved to the Alternatif Bank as Head of Legal.

Stratulat Albulescu Partner Adriana Dobre has been appointed the firm's new Head of Dispute Resolution.

Former CMS Warsaw Senior Associate Przemyslaw Karolak has joined banking-as-a-service cloud-native platform Vodeno as its General Counsel.

Former Counsels Maria Nefeli Bernitsa and Fotodotis Malamas have been appointed to Partner positions with Greek law firm Bernitsas.

Former Senior Counsel Pawel Kulak has been appointed as the Nordic Investment Bank's Principal Counsel.

Former Senior Associate Tania Patsalia has been promoted to a Partner position with Bernitsas.

Former Counsel Viktoria Szilagyi has been promoted to a Partner position with Lakatos Koves & Partners in Budapest.

Former Associate Partners Azuolas Cekanavicius and Povilas Junevicius have been promoted to Partner positions with Ellex in Lithuania.

On April 2, 2024, the LCF Law Group announced that Ivan Bondarchuk had been promoted to the firm's Partner ranks and will now lead its Energy and Projects practice in Kyiv.

The National Tax and Customs Authority (NAV) published its 2024 audit plan on 26 March 2024, which shows that it plans to carry out more rigorous audits this year than in recent years.

To facilitate easier obtaining of residence and work permits, due to the increasing influx of foreigners coming to live and work in the Republic of Serbia, new amendments were made to the Law on Foreigners and the Law on Employment of Foreigners in 2023. As a result of these legal amendments, there was a need to adopt new bylaws that would comply with the latest changes.

To enhance the competitiveness of the Hungarian economy, the Government plans to accelerate the process of setting up companies in Hungary for foreigners. Currently, individuals who do not understand Hungarian language, should wait days or even weeks to receive the decision from the Hungarian Company Registry Court certifying the registration of their new company.

According to the provisions of the Labor Law (“Law”), in case of (culpable) breach of work obligations or non-compliance with work discipline by an employee, before terminating the employment contract or imposing another measure prescribed by Law, the employer is obliged to warn the employee in writing about the existence of grounds for termination of the employment contract and to provide them with a deadline (of at least eight days from the date of receipt of the warning) to respond to the allegations included therein.

The question is not "if" you will face a cyberattack, but "when". Ensure your cyberspace is resilient to security risks early. New cybersecurity regulation will impact many Slovak companies this year and next.

Since COVID, we have been living with a rule that makes the acquisition of ownership by foreigners in certain Hungarian companies operating in strategic sectors subject to government approval. Although we can no longer speak of a state of emergency, the rule is expected to stay with us for long – albeit with several modifications along the way, as happened in January this year.

On 26 February 2024, the 34/2024 (II.26) decree on the different application of Act C of 2000 on Accounting during an emergency was published in the Hungarian Gazette, which repeals a decree issued a few days before, on 8 February.

Contributed by Boga & Associates.

Contributed by Babic & Partners.

Contributed by Bird & Bird.

Contributed by Boga & Associates.

Contributed by Ilaw Lextal.