Press release - 15 March 2024 CMS Austria has advised the Greek Sfakianakis Group on the acquisition of Ajar Car Rental GmbH from the Saudi Arabian Al Jomaih Group, providing comprehensive legal advice on the project. Ajar Car Rental GmbH is the master franchisee of Enterprise, National, and Alamo in Austria, serving rent-a-car customers across the country. During the acquisition, the CMS Austria team provided significant support and advice on all areas of the transaction, including due diligence, employment, regulatory compliance, intellectual property, banking and finance, data protection and competition. Alexander Rakosi (Partner, Corporate/M&A) led the CMS core transaction team, which further consisted of Christoph Birner (Associate, Corporate/M&A) and Thomas Liegl (Associate, Corporate/M&A). Alexander Rakosi comments: “We are very pleased to have successfully supported the Sfakianakis Group on its market entry into Austria and to have contributed to our client's continued growth in the automotive industry."The CMS due diligence team included Rebecca Herlitz (Associate, Corporate/M&A), Mariella Kapoun (Partner, Real Estate), Hans Lederer (Partner, Intellectual Property), Andreas Lichtenberger (At­tor­ney-at-Law, Data Protection), Caroline Pavitsits (Associate, Employment), Kai Ruckelshausen (Partner, Banking & Finance), Sheldon Sookdeo (Associate, Banking & Finance), Maximilian Uidl (Associate, Real Estate), Marlene Wim­mer-Nistel­ber­ger (Partner, Regulatory), Jens Winter (Partner, Employment) and Dieter Zandler (Partner, Competition), as well as legal trainees Roman Namestek, Ferdinand Sima and Mattias Torggler. PHH Rechtsanwälte, led by Rainer Kaspar and Philip Rosenauer, provided legal support to Al Jomaih. About Sfakianakis Group Founded in 1958, Sfakianakis Group is one of the leading diversified business groups in Greece, with a core focus on the Automotive, Industrial and Consumer Retail sectors. Headquartered in Athens, Greece, the Group is 100% family owned and employs over 1,500 individuals across 14 countries in Europe. Within the Automotive sector, the Group operates one of the largest automotive retail businesses in the region, the distribution businesses of BYD and Suzuki, a leading long-term leasing business (Executive Lease), and a rapidly growing Rent-A-Car business as the Master Franchisee of En­ter­prise-Na­tion­al-Alamo in 14 countries.

Press release - 22.03.2023An international team of experts from CMS advised the ALPLA Group on establishing a joint venture with the Spanish packaging company Inden Pharma. The core CMS Vienna team, led by Alexander Rakosi, included Florian Mayer and Anna Hiegel­sper­ger.   The ALPLA Group and Inden Pharma have strengthened their presence in the pharmaceutical market by founding a joint venture. ALPLA Pharma is contributing production sites in Greece and Poland to the cooperation and Inden Pharma two plants in Spain. Together they plan to set up a site in Germany and triple their production over the next five years. Such cross-border joint venture projects present numerous legal challenges, whose successful implementation requires seamless cooperation between internationally experienced teams from various practice groups and jurisdictions. The expert team for the current ALPLA deal included lawyers from CMS offices in Austria, Spain, Germany and Poland. Alexander Rakosi, Partner at CMS Vienna and responsible for the successful conclusion of the joint venture says: "Cross-border technology and know-how transfer are becoming increasingly important for our clients’ sustainable economic success. We are therefore delighted to have made a valuable contribution to this deal with our global CMS network, our international experience and our in-depth expertise on cross-border deals."The CMS Austria team consisted of corporate/M&A experts Alexander Rakosi, Florian Mayer, Anna Hiegelsperger, Livia Landskron, Ramona Mujanovic, Rebecca Herlitz, Rupert Riedl and Hannah Gierlinger. The Intellectual Property department was represented by Hans Lederer. Dieter Zandler, Vanessa Horaceck and Stefan Sottner were dealing with antitrust and competition law issues. The CMS Spain team, led by Luis Miguel De Dios and Jorge Peris Hevia, also included corporate/M&A experts Ana Vázquez Recio, Lucía Signes de Mesa and Saphira Mouzayek. Víctor Sanjuán Mira, María José Ramos Aguilar, Guillermo García Diéguez, Irene San Martín García and Ricardo Gómez-Barreda de la Gándara were also involved in the due diligence process. Tax law expertise was provided by Ricardo Héctor and Marta Burgos Murillo. The CMS Germany team included Malte Bruhns, Laura Christin Stein, Christin Fischer and Moritz Ziegler. The CMS Poland team consisted of Blazej Zagorski, Joanna Bialoskorska and Aleksandra Dalecka.

Pressemitteilung - 02. Februar 2023Hans Lederer, Klaus Pateter und Arno Zimmermann werden mit 1. Februar 2023 Partner bei CMS in Wien. Die CMS Reich-Rohrwig Hainz Rechtsanwälte GmbH leitet den Gen­er­a­tion­en­wech­sel ein und ernennt drei international erfahrene Wirtschaft­san­wälte zu neuen Partnern: Hans Lederer, Klaus Pateter und Arno Zimmermann erweitern ab 1. Februar 2023 den Partnerkreis der renommierten Wiener Recht­san­walts­sozi­etät. Hans Lederer ist auf Im­ma­ter­i­al­gü­ter­recht spezialisiert. Er verwaltet zahlreiche internationale Rechteportfolios und berät und vertritt seine Mandant:innen in Zusammenhang mit der Sicherung, Durchsetzung und Lizenzierung von Marken- und Designrechten. Er verfügt zudem über profunde Kenntnisse und langjährige Erfahrung in den Bereichen Urheberrecht und Per­sön­lich­keit­s­rechte, publiziert hierzu regelmäßig in Fachzeits­chriften und ist Gastvortragender an der FH Burgenland. Darüber hinaus berät er seine Mandant:innen in strategischen Fragen zum Patentrecht, insbesondere in Zusammenhang mit Di­en­sterfind­un­gen, und vertritt diese in streitigen Verfahren. Vor seiner Tätigkeit für CMS arbeitete Hans Lederer als Jurist und Projektmanager im Gen­er­alsek­ret­ari­at des Ös­ter­reichis­chen Roten Kreuzes. Klaus Pateter berät und vertritt seine internationalen Mandant:innen in den Bereichen IT-Recht, neue Technologien & digitale Assets, Datens­chutzrecht, Cybersecurity sowie Produkthaftung und Produkt­sich­er­heit. Zudem steht er Start-ups bei Aufbau und Finanzierung des Unternehmens – insbesondere im Bereich Venture Capital – zur Seite. Klaus Pateter leitet die Start-up Advisory Group von CMS Österreich sowie equIP, den renommierten Legal Accelerator von CMS für Start-ups. Klaus Pateter ist in Österreich und New York als Rechtsanwalt zugelassen. Arno Zimmermann berät Mandant:innen in streitigen Verfahren vor staatlichen und Schiedsgericht­en. Sein Schwerpunkt liegt auf gesell­schaft­s­recht­lichen Au­s­ein­ander­set­zun­gen zwischen Gesellschaftern sowie Gesellschaften und deren Organen. (Börsen­ori­entierte) Gesellschaften wenden sich an Arno Zimmermann auch regelmäßig zur Vorbereitung von Haupt- und Gesell­schafterver­sammlungen, sofern er Investoren in solchen vertritt. Darüber hinaus berät er regelmäßig Klient:innen in gesell­schaft­s­recht­lich anspruchsvollen Transaktionen im Venture Capital Bereich sowie bei gren­züber­s­chreit­enden Im­mob­i­li­en­tran­sak­tion­en. Arno Zimmermann ist Autor von mehr als 40 Publikationen in seinen Fachbereichen und regelmäßiger Vortragender. CMS Österreich hat eine führende Position in Mittel- und Südost-Europa und verfügt über Büros in Wien, Belgrad, Bratislava, Istanbul, Kiew, Ljubljana, Podgorica, Sarajewo, Skopje, Sofia und Zagreb. Mit den neuen Partnern werden die Kernkompetenzen des Hauses weiter ausgebaut und das Know-how im Technologie- und Start-up-Bereich stärker in den Fokus ger­ückt.Gün­ther Hanslik, Managing Partner bei CMS Reich-Rohrwig Hainz: „Unsere Kanzlei steht für fachliche Kompetenz, internationale Expertise und nachhaltige Stabilität. Die große Mehrzahl unserer Mandant:innen beraten und betreuen wir über viele Jahre. Dabei geben wir ihnen Sicherheit und Orientierung und unterstützen sie nicht zuletzt bei der Umsetzung innovativer Zukunftsthemen. Mit unserer zielgerichteten Nachwuchs¬arbeit stellen wir sicher, dass diese wertvolle Expertise auch an die nächste Generation weitergegeben wird und CMS ihren Mandant:innen auch in Zukunft als verlässlicher und vertrauensvoller Partner zur Seite stehen kann. Wir freuen uns daher sehr, dass wir mit Hans Lederer, Klaus Pateter und Arno Zimmermann drei hochqual­i­f­iz­ierte und engagierte Anwälte in unserer Partnerschaft begrüßen dürfen.“

Published on CEE Legal Matters | February 23, 2022 CMS has advised Greiner on the sale of its extrusion division, including operational assets in Austria and the Czech Republic, to Nimbus. KPMG Legal advised Nimbus. Greiner is an Austrian plastics and foam specialist company.

Shortly before the beginning of the year, CMS Austria supported the Austrian plastics and foam specialist Greiner AG on the successful sale of its extrusion division, including the associated operational real estate in Nußbach, Upper Austria, and Trhové Sviny, Czech Republic. On 21 December 2021, the German Federal Cartel Office approved the sale of the Austrian- based Greiner Extrusion Group (GEG) to the Dutch-German investment company Nimbus – the majority owner, amongst other things, of bat­ten­feld-cin­cin­nati, one of CEG’s competitors with subsidiaries in Germany, Austria, the USA and China. The now affiliated companies intend to exploit synergies in purchasing, at least. Otherwise, both entities will remain independent companies with their organisational structures and market presence. As part of the transaction, the experts of the CMS advisory team, led by Alexander Rakosi, Florian Mayer and Anna Hiegelsperger, had to navigate numerous complex legal topics on trans­ac­tion-re­lated aspects as well as in the areas of real estate law and an­ti­trust/com­pet­i­tion law. The internationally experienced team of experts at CMS Austria also included Dieter Zandler (antitrust law), Vanessa Horaceck (competition law), Hans Lederer (trademark law), Johannes Hysek (real estate law), Mariella Kapoun (real estate), Sibylle Novak (international tax law), Thomas Aspalter (tax law), Cornelia Kreuth (M&A), Christoph Birner (financing) and Alexandros Hantasch (corporate trans­ac­tions). In addition, the Austrian advisory team was also supported by colleagues from other CMS offices. The international CMS team consisted of Stepan Havranek (CZ), Eva Bryndova (CZ), Michael Munzinger (PRC), Lei Shi (PRC), Dipesh Santilale (UK), Sabby Kenzie (UK), Margaux Deuchler (F), Thomas Hains (F), Blazej Zagorski (PL) and Marta Osowska-Buba (PL). Lead partner Alexander Rakosi happily notes: “International transactions bring multi-faceted challenges. We are glad to have been able to provide comprehensive legal advice to the Greiner Group from project kick-off to its successful closing across all countries.”

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