Global law firm Dentons received five Deal of the Year awards at the 2023 CEE Legal Matters Awards. The awards recognized and celebrated the law firms which contributed to the largest and most important deals in Central and Eastern Europe in 2022.

Winners of this year’s Deal of the Year Awards were announced on April 25, 2023, in Istanbul. This was the most competitive year to date, with the jury voting on a record number of submissions, making the ultimate winners all the more worthy of praise.

Below, we provide details of the awards:

Deal of the Year in Albania: This award recognizes Dentons’ work in advising Hungarian IT service management company 4iG on the acquisition of Albanian company One Telecommunications. Dentons' team included Budapest-based partner Rob Irving, counsel Kamran Pirani, associate Sebastian Ishiguro, and junior associates Brigitta Kovacs.

Deal of the Year in Hungary: This award recognizes Dentons’ work in advising aiMotive, a startup based in Hungary, on its sale to automotive manufacturer Stellantis. aiMotive is one of the world’s largest independent automotive technology powerhouses and the acquisition accelerates Stellantis’ AI technology and the development of its all-new STLA AutoDrive platform. Dentons’ team included partners Rob Irving, and Marcell Szőnyi, counsel Kamran Pirani, and associates Sebastian Ishiguro and Aliz Wulcz in Budapest, as well as the Frankfurt-based team led by Dr. Gesine von der Groeben and counsel Lieor Koblenz.

Deal of the Year in Romania: This award recognizes Dentons’ work in advising SNGN Romgaz on its acquisition of the ExxonMobil subsidiary that owns 50% of the rights and obligations for the Neptun Deep project in the Black Sea. Partners Douglas Humphrey (London) and Claudiu Munteanu-Jipescu (Bucharest) led the deal, assisted by senior associate Torquil Law in Edinburgh; senior associate Olympe Bory and associate Parisa Ahmadian in London; and counsel Elena Vlasceanu and associates Cristina Staicu and Renata Ionescu in Bucharest.

Deal of the Year in Serbia: This award recognizes Dentons’ work in advising a banking consortium on their €155 million financing for the 103.3-megawatt Krivača wind farm project co-owned by Serbia’s MK Group and Slovenia’s ALFI Green Energy Fund. The lending consortium consisted of Erste Group Bank, Erste Bank Novi Sad, Raiffeisen Bank International, Raiffeisen Banka Beograd, Nova Ljubljanska Banka, NLB Komercijalna Banka Beograd, and Oesterreichische Entwichklungsbank. Dentons' team included partner Simon Dayes, counsel Maria Tomescu, and associates Cristina Staicu and Alexandra Sofineti in Bucharest, and partner Axel Schlieter and senior associate Julia Heitmann in Dusseldorf.

Deal of the Year in Slovakia: This award recognizes Dentons’ work in advising Minit and its shareholders on its sale to Microsoft. Minit is a Slovakia-based company, specializing in process mining technology. Budapest-based Partner Rob Irving and counsel Kamran Pirani led the team, which included associates Sebastian Ishiguro and Tamas Enzsol in Budapest, partners Juraj Gyarfas and Stanislav Durica in Bratislava, counsel Bram Bloemers and associate Nick de Rooij in Amsterdam, partner Alex Thomas, counsel Alastair MacLeod and Sonal Khimji, and associate Ivan Jelocnik in London, and partner Christopher Colclough in Milton Keynes.

CEE Legal Matters has held the CEE Deal of the Year Awards annually since 2017 to celebrate the transactions, financings, IPOs, and other deals that underpin growth throughout the region, as well as the lawyers and law firms who make them happen. Law firms are nominated based on deals submitted for consideration with a two-tiered panel of prominent lawyers from across the region evaluating the submissions based on deal complexity, size, and market significance.

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