Sorainen has advised the Lords LB Baltic Fund III on the share-deal sale of a shopping center in Klaipeda to the Union RE Core Fund I. Cobalt advised the buyer.
Cobalt and Walless Advise on Avena's Sale of Grain Trade Business to Scandagra
Cobalt has advised Avena Nordic Grain on the sale of its Estonian and Lithuanian grain trade businesses to the Scandagra Group. Walless advised Scandagra on the deal.
Edgars Lodzins Makes Partner at Cobalt
Former Specialist Counsel Edgars Lodzins has become a Partner in Cobalt’s Latvia office.
Lithuania: Upcoming Changes to the Security Interest Regime
The initially planned major changes to the security interest regime in Lithuania, which would remove notarial certifications of mortgage/pledge, have not materialized. However, certain amendments to Lithuanian laws governing security interests will enter into force from January 1, 2022.
The Buzz in Latvia: Interview with Guntars Zile of Cobalt
COVID-19 remains one of the most prominent factors, directly and indirectly impacting the overall political, legal, and economic scenes in Latvia, according to Cobalt Partner Guntars Zile.
Cobalt Advises Novian Group on Acquisition of Elsis Pro
Cobalt has advised Novian Group company Novian Systems on the acquisition of information systems and software developer Elsis PRO.
Competition and Competition Litigation Laws and Regulations in Lithuania
Contributed by Cobalt.
The Corner Office: How Do You Disconnect?
In “The Corner Office” we ask Managing Partners at law firms across Central and Eastern Europe about their backgrounds, strategies, and responsibilities. With summer having just passed, the question this time: What is your one favorite yearly activity to disconnect?
Trends and Prospects for Energy in Latvia
The energy market in Latvia is in a constant process of development, on both the regulatory and business sides. The following highlights suggest the energy sector will remain active in the foreseeable future, providing new opportunities for potential investors.
Lithuania: Current Realities and Future Perspectives of the Oil & Gas Sector
Although Lithuania cannot boast rich oil resources lying beneath its territory, a number of large oil industry facilities are successfully operating in the country. This suggests that Lithuania has sufficient technical capacity to import oil and petroleum products from various countries, as well as diverse and technically ensured possibilities of supplying petroleum products. Moreover, the country has secured the required amount of petroleum product state reserves, which affords protection against disruptions in their supply.
In a League (Table) of Their Own: A Look at Baltic Firms’ Volume of Client Matters
Regional periodical league tables ranking M&A activity through the lens of the law firms advising on the deals are often dominated by Baltic law firms, with the CEELM Index special issue of the CEE Legal Matters magazine reflecting the same trend. To better understand why that is so, we spoke with several Partners – from both Baltic firms and other CEE jurisdictions.
Real Estate and Project Development News
During the last few months number of laws and regulations have been passed in Latvia which have an impact on construction processes, investment in the Latvian real estate and project development.
Latvia: Navigating the Jungle – Anti-Money Laundering and Sanctions Compliance
In February, 2020, the Latvian authorities breathed a sigh of relief after the Financial Action Task Force voted against adding Latvia to the so-called “grey list” of jurisdictions with strategic anti-money laundering deficiencies. Prior to that, MONEYVAL, the permanent monitoring body of the Council of Europe entrusted with the task of assessing compliance with the principal international standards to counter money laundering, found that Latvian financial institutions had failed to introduce sufficient methods to identify suspicious funds primarily associated with clients from the former Soviet bloc countries.
Lithuania: Is the EU’s New Crowdfunding Regulation an Opportunity for Lithuania?
On the 5th of October, the new regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on European crowdfunding service providers for business was approved. Although crowdfunding activities are already regulated in Lithuania by national laws, this new regulation represents a real opportunity for Lithuania and Lithuanian crowdfunding service providers.
No Blues in the Baltics: Irmantas Norkus Leads Cobalt to Success
In 2015, the word Cobalt took on a new meaning in the legal markets of Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, when a new pan-Baltic law firm with that name opened its doors, immediately entrenched in the top tier of the region’s legal markets. That firm owes much of its success and reputation to the Managing Partner of its Lithuanian office and Chairman of the firm-wide Management Board, Irmantas Norkus.
Employee Stock Options in Latvia – Spring is in the Air
Tax Exemption for Employee Stock Options
Green Energy Development in Lithuania – Challenges and Opportunities in the Context of COVID-19
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and various related restrictive measures have created an extraordinary human, business, and legal situation in Lithuania. The Energy sector (like all others) has become subject to various restrictions and challenges, including restrictions on the movement of workers, partner liquidity issues, reduced demand for energy resources, etc. As everywhere else in Europe, Lithuanian electricity market participants have faced a significant decrease in wholesale electricity market prices. Moreover, it is already clear that COVID-19 has negatively affected the international supply chain, as the energy market participants experience disruptions and delays in the performance of contracts and project delivery. In these extraordinary circumstances, industry players (including operating power plant operators, project developers, and so on) have a reasonable expectation that the government will take the effect of the ongoing international crisis into account if developers do not bid in time in auctions or miss their project deployment deadlines.
Latvia: A Solution to Insufficiencies in Supply of Medicines in Latvia
In accordance with statistical data from 2018 and 2019, Latvia’s State Agency of Medicines concluded that there is a high risk of unavailability of state-reimbursed medicines in the Latvian pharmaceutical market, mainly as a consequence of the behavior of the wholesalers. The same conclusion was reached by the Competition Council of the Republic of Latvia which, in late 2018 and 2019, published two reports on the availability of medicines. Accordingly, it was concluded that the existing regulatory framework was unable to provide an effective market protection mechanism to reduce the risk that patients in Latvia might not have access to state-reimbursed medicines, because after these medicines are made available in Latvia by producers or importers, they are exported to third countries or other EU member states by other market participants.