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Atanas Bangachev

Partner
Head of Corporate, CMS Sofia

Portrait of Atanas Bangachev

Atanas Bangachev

Partner
Head of Corporate, CMS Sofia

Contact
CMS Sofia
Landmark Centre
14 Tzar Osvoboditel Blvd
1000 Sofia
Bulgaria
Languages Bulgarian, English

Atanas Bangachev is a partner based in Sofia and Head of the Corporate practice group.

He is a Bulgarian-qualified lawyer specialising in Bulgarian corporate, contract and privatisation law. His main area of expertise is M&A transactions across a variety of sectors.

Atanas served as Executive Director of the Privatisation Agency of the Republic of Bulgaria. During this time he was involved in some of the largest privatisation deals in Bulgaria. He is one of the leading and best-known legal professionals in M&A and Private Equity in the country and has an extensive track record and familiarity with the market. He is experienced in all corporate matters ranging from registration of entities, to corporate restructuring, SPVs, mergers and acquisitions, capital raising, drafting and reviewing of shareholders documentation, company restructuring.

In addition, Atanas has assisted major international companies across different sectors of the economy in carrying out internal compliance investigations of their Bulgarian operations. He is the leading CMS lawyer in Sofia for employment regulatory and compliance matters and white collar crime.

Atanas Bangachev is praised as a "problem solver" who "is very commercially oriented and helps clients get good results in negotiations" by Chambers and Partners Europe.

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Relevant experience

  • Advent International, one of the largest and most experienced global private equity investors, on the sale of the KAI Group, a leading manufacturer of ceramic tiles and other building materials, to a Luxembourg-based affiliate of Mohawk Industries Inc., one of the world’s largest flooring companies.
  • Riverside Europe Partners LLC, a private equity fund, on the acquisition of a majority shareholding in the Bulgarian TMT company – Fadata. Work included a legal due diligence process, transactional advice and assistance in closing the deal. This is the among the largest deals in Bulgaria’s IT sector for 2014/2015.
  • Quinn Group on the sale of Hilton in Sofia. Work included negotiation of the Share Purchase Agreement, negotiating of the transactional documents, review and revising of the corporate structure of the transaction as well as post-completion transactional assistance. This was part of a package sale where CMS also advised Quinn Group on the sale of Sheraton Krakow Hotel in Poland. This was a cross border transaction covering Poland, England, Ireland and Switzerland, with a financing component under New York law.
  • CVCI and NBGIon their acquisition of 90% of the share capital of Prestige 96 – one of the leading produces in the confectionary industry. Work included a legal due diligence, assistance in the structuring of the transaction, the negotiation of the transaction documents, and the very closing mechanics. CMS has also advised on the merger control aspects of the deal and on the obtaining of unconditional merger clearance from Bulgarian CPC.
  • Europa Capital on the acquisition of the first shopping mall in Bulgaria, Mall of Sofia, for more than EUR 100 million from GE Capital Investments Holding B.V. and Fellstone Limited.
  • Delhaize, one of the leading European retail operators, on the Bulgarian aspects of its acquisition of a major local chain of supermarkets, owned by Delta Maxi Group, Serbia.
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Education

  • LLM, The University of Sofia, St. Kliment Ohridski, Sofia
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Expertise

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Strong eco­nom­ic per­form­ance and a gen­er­ally spark­ling M&A mar­ket de­scribe the Cent­ral and East­ern European land­scape these days. Mar­ket re­search­ers see steady growth year on year in M&A activ­it­ies and...
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Bear­er shares now fully ab­ol­ished in Bul­garia
On 23 Oc­to­ber 2018, amend­ments to the Bul­gari­an Com­merce Act came in­to force, which en­tirely re­peal bear­er shares in Bul­garia. Ac­cord­ing to this amend­ment, all ex­ist­ing joint-stock com­pan­ies and part­ner­ships...
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