POTAMITISVEKRIS are proud to announce that it has advised together with Milbank LLP, Ioannides Demetriou LLC Eurobank in the conclusion of a share purchase agreement whereby it has agreed to acquire a 17.3% stake in Hellenic Bank, the second largest bank in Cyprus. Following completion of the transaction, which is subject to regulatory approvals, Eurobank will own 46.5% of the shares in Hellenic Bank and will be required by law to submit a mandatory tender offer for all remaining shares. Partner Alexander Metallinos is advising Eurobank in relation to corporate, banking and capital markets law matters, and partner Dimitris Loukas is advising on competition law matters.

Read more: Link

Dimitris Loukas and associates Athanasios Taliadouros and Alexandros Ntallas advised a key supplier of medical equipment in relation to the HCC’s antitrust investigation and ensuing settlement decision concerning an infringement of competition rules in the market for the supply of diagnostic rapid tests for SARS-CoV-2.

Konstantinos Papadiamantis and Konstantina Panagopoulou Perez successfully represented a Servicer before the Appeal Court, which issued an essential ruling on a disputed issue regarding Greek NPL’s. More specifically, the Athens Appeal Court ruled that it is legal for the Servicer to undertake the judicial proceedings at his name and request the adjudicated amount to be paid directly to the fund, if so provided by the Servicing Agreement; the parties right to undertake such agreement was contested. Moreover it may be inferred from the ruling that the parties have the opportunity to adapt the servicing agreements, to a large extent, to their specific needs.

Partners Theologos Mintzas and Konstantinos Papadiamantis, supported by Associate Ilia-Aikaterini Boura, successfully represented the winning consortium of a public port sub-concession in an intervention before the Court of Auditors. The intervention succeeded to annul a decision by the Court of Auditors that required prior to the signing of port sub-concessions the preparation and issuance of master plans, a requirement imposing significant and unnecessary, both from a legal and a policy perspective, delays on the conclusion of the sub-concession program of the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (HRADF / ΤΑΙΠΕΔ). HRADF led the challenge and was exceptionally represented by KLC Law Firm whose team was led by Partner Theodora Xythali and Senior Associate ANDREAS ABATIS.

Alexandros Kortesis (partner) supported by Fay Karkantzou (associate) respresented multinational company in the pharmaceutical sector in litigation procedings before the Council of State against the Greek State (Minister of Health) regarding the annulment and suspension of clawback imposition deeds for the year 2022. The petitions for suspension were granted regarding the clawback imposed on orphan drugs setting new -following the issuance of law No. 4931/2022- judicial precedent .

Alexandros Kortesis (partner) and his team, acted as local legal advisors of several leading pharmaceutical companies during negotiations with the National Negotiation Committee for the reimbursement of pharmaceutical products, in accordance with articles 247 to 256 of law No. 4512/2018, as in force.

POTAMITISVEKRIS team with Maria Ferfeli successfully represented a foreign bank in litigation proceedings before the Greek Supreme Court (Areios Pagos), which confirmed the legality and validity of an exclusive choice-of-court clause in a dispute with consumers. It was ruled that consumers claims for abusive clauses are not investigated ex officio by the court.

POTAMITISVEKRIS supported a Greek department store for its acquisition by a listed holding company, a landmark transaction in Greek retail. Our team was comprised of partners: George Bersis, Vassilis Stergiou, Euripides Ioannou, Alexios Papastavrou, and Aspasia Malliou

The tax team of POTAMITISVEKRIS, led by Partner Aspasia Malliou and supported by associates Dimitra Katsipi and Haris Stamboulis, succeeded in obtaining a decision from the Athens Administrative Court of Appeal, according to which the general exemption from real estate tax, which applies to limited liability companies (article 15 paragraph 3 b of Law 3091/2002), also applies to shipping companies. The judgment in the above case is original, as there is no case-law precedent and upholds the exemption of the applicant shipping company from real estate tax of approximately EUR 1.300.000