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News March 2024

Kinstellar announces new promotions to Counsel

February 2024 – Kinstellar is delighted to announce the promotions to Counsel of: Yerlan Akhmetov, Kuanysh Shekerbekov (Almaty, Kazakhstan), Cătălin Dinu, Cătălin Graure (Bucharest, Romania), Barnabás Sági (Budapest, Hungary), Yulia Eismont, Maksym Tesliar (Kyiv, Ukraine), Michal Forýtek (Prague, Czech Republic),  Andrijana Kaštelan, Vedran Kopilović, Marija Vuchetich (Zagreb, Croatia). ALMATY Yerlan Akhmetov focuses on banking and finance, M&A and capital markets matters. Having been with the Firm for nine years, Yerlan has earned a reputation for cultivating strong client relationships, demonstrating leadership qualities and making significant contributions to our firm's success. He has played a key role

Insights February 2024

Update: ESG reporting obligations in Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia

With the 6 July 2024 deadline for the implementation of the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (EU) 2022/2464 (the "CSRD”) looming, Member States across the EU have been moving at different speeds to adopt their respective local implementing legislation. Our second status update on the CSRD implementation in Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia is available here. At the time of writing, three of the six countries in Central and Eastern Europe that we have been following – the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania – have already adopted legislative acts that, at least partially, implement the CSRD into national legislation. Slovakia has brought a draft act to parliament

Insights February 2024

Provisional agreement reached on the Ecodesign Regulation and its impact on the fashion sector

As of 5 December 2023, the Council and European Parliament reached a provisional political agreement regarding a „Regulation establishing a Framework for setting ecodesign requirements for sustainable products“. The upcoming EU sustainability legislation is crucial as it affects a substantial part of the Consumer & Retail sector. It is of particular importance in the field of fashion and luxury industry as the points which the provisional agreement addresses have been among the hot topics of recent years in this sector. As we are closely monitoring the legislation process, click here or on the image below to explore the overview of key points of the adopted provisional agreement.

News January 2024

Kinstellar expands its Corporate M&A practice in Bucharest with a new senior hire

Kinstellar is pleased to announce that Claudia Popescu has joined the firm’s Bucharest office as Special Counsel in its Corporate M&A practice. Claudia will strengthen the office’s capabilities and will generate further support for the team in responding to the growing need for corporate and M&A projects in Romania. Claudia Popescu is specialized in M&A, Corporate and Private Equity and has more than 20 years of experience in strategically advising reputable companies on acquisitions and divestments, mergers, intra-group restructurings, regulatory and commercial matters, public offerings of securities, private equity, privatisations and other investment-related matters, including in regulated sectors.

Deals January 2024

Kinstellar advises Evelixon Trading in two transactions in the Serbian wind power sector

Kinstellar advised Evelixon Trading Limited on the acquisition of a 100% share in the project company Grand Wind Park from Windvision Serbia Holding. The project, known as the WN NBT WIND 1 wind farm, is currently in the early stages of development. Located in the city of Pančevo, the farm is planned to have an installed power capacity of 120 MW. Evelixon Trading Limited has a few projects in their portfolio in Serbia in the early stages of development or nearing "ready-to-build" status. Kinstellar’s team provided comprehensive legal advice throughout the transaction – performing a legal due diligence, drafting the transaction documents - including the SPA, and assisting with the signing and closing processes.

Insights December 2023

ESG reporting obligations in Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia

Since the ESG reporting obligations in the EU, i.e. the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) entered into force earlier this year, the transposition clock has been ticking for Member States with a deadline expiring on 6 July 2024. Kinstellar’s ESG team is closely monitoring the implementation process in all EU countries where we are present. Our first status update on the CSRD implementation in Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia is available here.  At the time of writing, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia have proposed draft laws implementing the CSRD, while Bulgaria and Croatia have set up working groups to prepare draft legal acts. In any event

Insights November 2023

“Green Claims” in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary

On 22 March 2023, the European Commission published a proposal for a Directive on Green Claims. The proposed Directive aims to tackle false environmental claims by ensuring that consumers receive reliable, comparable and verifiable environmental information on products and services across the European Union. By laying down clear criteria on how companies should evidence environmental claims, along with mandating an EU labelling scheme and new enforcement procedures to secure compliance, the Directive on Green Claims is designed to enable better environmental decision-making by consumers and to reduce so called “green washing” (spurious environmentally friendly claims). However, it will likely still be some time before

Insights November 2023

Transposition of the CSRD in the Czech Republic

Directive (EU) 2022/2464 on corporate sustainability reporting (the “CSRD”) was adopted at the end of 2022 and entered into force in January 2023, with a transposition deadline of 6 July 2024. The Czech Republic has opted for a phased-in transposition process in two stages corresponding to the implementation timeframe under the CSRD: This first phase, carried out as a minimum transposition, is already underway, namely in the context of the draft legislation on the consolidation of public budgets (the “Consolidation Package”). The Consolidation Package, among other legislative measures, introduces legislative provisions on sustainability reporting, to the extent corresponding to the first phase of reporting

Insights October 2023

Legal aspects of the use of sustainable finance instruments in Bulgaria

The Banking, Finance and Capital Markets team in our Sofia office carried out a training session on the legal aspects of the use of sustainable finance instruments with a focus on green loans, social loans and sustainability-linked loans. The variety of ESG financing instruments allows for some flexibility in the choice of targets and KPIs; still ESG loans should follow the clearly established sustainable finance principles to avoid the risk of declassification or greenwashing claims. In addition to contributing to sustainability goals, these instruments have a wide range of advantages, including economic and reputational benefits. As they are becoming increasingly popular, we will continue monitoring the legal and regulatory

Insights September 2023

EU publishes new regulation on alternative fuel infrastructure

At the end of September, the long-awaited Regulation (EU) 2023/1804) on the deployment of alternative fuel infrastructure, and repealing Directive 2014/94/EU (“AFIR”) was published in the Official Journal of the European Union. Though the entry into force of AFIR is 13 April 2024, it is worth reviewing the key takeaways that the AFIR introduces as part of the EU’s Fit for 55 package.   The AFIR sets binding national targets for the development of adequate EU alternative fuel infrastructure. The new regulation also establishes common technical specifications and requirements regarding the information to vehicle users for the provision of data and payment requirements. The AFIR includes detailed regulations regarding

Insights July 2023

Romanian Competition Council issues draft report addressing permitting bottlenecks in the renewables sector

The Romanian Competition Council (“RCC”) published today, 19 July 2023, a preliminary report following its study on the potential market barriers to producers accessing the local energy market from renewable energy sources (“RES”), given the applicable permitting process.  Romanian Competition Council report on the permitting of new RES capacities In brief, the RCC concluded that the process of obtaining all permits and authorisations needed for the commissioning of new RES capacities is cumbersome and time-consuming, in spite of some simplification steps already taken, and may be discouraging to investors. Some of the main RCC findings and recommendations included the following: The

Deals June 2023

Kinstellar advises Jantzen Renewables on the sale of the Helios 1 photovoltaic cluster in Romania to OMV Petrom

Kinstellar’s team in Romania has advised Danish developer Jantzen Renewables ApS on its transaction with OMV Petrom, the largest integrated energy company in Southeast Europe, for the purchase of the Helios 1 photovoltaic cluster in Romania. With the installed power estimated to be approximately 710 MW, the cluster will be one of Southeast Europe's most significant photovoltaic projects, powering around 280,000 Romanian households annually. Kinstellar advised on all matters pertaining to the transaction, including on the due-diligence and the negotiations with OMV Petrom. The team was led by Iustinian Captariu, Partner and Co-Head of the firm-wide Energy service line, and by Victor Constantinescu, Managing Partner