We are happy to announce that our law firm supported HERACLES Group, a member of Holcim in the negotiation and execution of the agreement for its acquisition of Larsinos SA, a landmark transaction in the Greek cement and quarry industry. Our team is led by Partners Vassilis Stergiou (M&A), Dimitrios Loukas (Competition), and Theologos Mintzas (Real Estate & Environment), and supported by Associates Nikolas Sigkridis, Kostas Manikas, Ioanna Kefaloniti, Ilia-Aikaterini Boura, Anastasia Bolari, Marialena Papageorgiou, Elisabetta Lentsiou, Nikoleta Nikolaou, and Elena Theodoropoulou.

We are delighted to announce that we advised the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund (HFSF) as selling shareholder in connection with the secondary offering of existing shares representing a 22% shareholding in the share capital of National Bank of Greece S.A. The transaction was structured as a fully marketed offering consisting of a public offering in Greece and a private placement book-building process to QIBs in the USA and to certain other institutional investors outside of the USA.
This historic transaction for the capital markets and the banking system of Greece is one of the most successful ones, with the combined offering being oversubscribed by more than 8 times, and the total gross proceeds raised by the HFSF amounting to circa €1.067 million.
Our team was led by Managing Partner George Bersis, assisted by Senior Associate, Elena Theocharakou and Associate, Elisabetta Lentsiou.

Theologos Mintzas (Partner) and Anastasia Bolari (Associate) supported the consortium of European Finance & Aerospace Ventures SA, Blacksummit Financial Group and GEK Terna in the signing of the sub-concession agreement for the operation and maintenance of the Filippos B Port in Kavala. Dimitris Loukas (Partner) and Kostas Manikas (Associate) advised with regard to competition law issues. This was the first ever port sub-concession agreement in Greece and an important infrastructure transaction for the development of Northern Greece.

POTAMITISVEKRIS advised Piraeus Bank throughout the sale of the entire share capital of Piraeus Group’s leasing subsidiary, ‘Sunshine Leases’, including a, classified as held-for-sale portfolio of leasing Non-Performing Exposures (NPEs), to Hellas Capital Leasing, a subsidiary of Bain Capital Credit.
POTAMITISVEKRIS led the transaction and advised on all matters related to Greek law.

Our team was led by Maria Perifanou, Partner together with Partner Theologos Mintzas (for real estate issues) assisted by Associates Palmyra Chantzara and Evangelia Natsi.

We are delighted to announce that we advised UniCredit S.p.A. in relation to its acquisition of 9% of the shares of Alpha Services and Holdings S.A. (Alpha), 100% parent of Alpha Bank S.A., from the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund (HFSF) and the conclusion of a binding term sheet for the conclusion of a strategic partnership regarding the merger of the respective subsidiaries of the two banks in Romania, the acquisition of 51% of the shares in Alpha Life by UniCredit and the commercial partnership in the distribution of UniCredit bancassurance, asset management and other banking products by Alpha Bank.

This seminal transaction is extremely important for the Greek banking sector and the wider Greek economy because it constitutes the second successful divestment of HFSF from a Greek systemic bank signifying a major step to the return of the Greek banking sector to full private ownership and the first investment of a major international bank in a Greek bank after the financial crisis, which is seen as a vote of confidence in the Greek economy.

Partner Alexander Metallinos assisted by associate Amalia Giannakopoulou advised UniCredit.

Our Criminal litigation team has successfully represented an American citizen before the Supreme Court for espionage and participation in a criminal organization. The Supreme Court delivered a landmark decision by recognizing the right of the accused to be provided with translated indictment and other important documents of the criminal case file into the language that he/she understands.
The decision, blazes a trail for cases where the accused part is not a native Greek speaker, thus is entitled to have the basic documents of the criminal file translated.
Our team was led by Konstantinos Papadiamantis, partner and leader of our Civil Criminal litigation practice, with the collaboration of Natalie Chrysagi, senior associate.

Our Partners Konstantinos Papadiamantis and Stathis Potamitis together with Senior Associate, Theodora Souma, represented a domestic company in ICC arbitration proceedings for claims arising out of a Share Purchase Agreement, amounting to approximately €160 million. They also assisted the client on settlement negotiations and on the termination of the dispute through the issuance of a consent award.

We are happy to share that our law firm advised Τrade Estates REIC S.A. in the conclusion of a conditional share purchase agreement with REDS S.A. to acquire 100% of shares in GYALOU S.A., which owns and develops the retail park “Smart Park”. This transaction is part of Trade Estates’ strategic specialization on investments related to the development of Retail Parks and new generation Logistics Centers, which is evolving in global trade. Our team was led by Partner Maria Perifanou who was assisted by Associate Evelina Papadimitropoulou.

We proudly announce that we advised Alpha Bank and National Bank of Greece, acting as Joint Coordinators and Bookrunners, on the Initial Public Offering of Optima Bank. Through a very successful public offering, oversubscribed by 5.1 times, Optima Bank is the first credit institution to be listed on the Athens Stock Exchange after 17 years. Our team was led by Managing Partner George Bersis, together with Senior Associate, Elena Theocharakou, assisted by Associates Marialena Papageorgiou, Elisabetta Lentsiou, Nikos Stefas, Vasiliki Verykaki, Aimilios Stragalinos, Semina Zavitsanou, Afroditi Arnogiannaki and Dimitra Iordanidou.