Allen & Overy has been named winner of the “Capital Markets” category at the Czech Law Firm of the Year awards 2018.
The winner’s list of the 11th annual awards organised by EPRAVO.CZ, an independent company monitoring the activities of lawyers and law firms in the Czech Republic, was announced yesterday at the Žofín Palace in the presence of representatives of leading law firms and personalities in the judiciary and business.
This is already a third award A&O has won in the last five years for its work in capital markets in the Czech Republic. In 2017, the team received the “Law Firm of the Year in the Czech Republic” award at the annual IFLR (International Financial Law Review) European awards for its advisory role on the issuance of secured bonds of the Polish MCI group under Czech law, and in 2013 for its role on the establishment of the first ever international programme for issuance of covered bonds by a Czech bank (Raiffeisenbank). IFLR is the industry leader for awarding legal innovation.
Petr Vybíral, head of A&O Prague capital markets practice, commented: “I am delighted that we have received this award and I cherish it immensely as it is another proof of us staying at the forefront of legal developments not only globally, but also in the Czech Republic. Recent years have been very successful for our practice and I am proud of the entire team as the success is mainly due to them.”
2018 was an extraordinary year for our capital markets practice, as proven by our advice to Česká spořitelna in connection with the historically first exchange and tender offers in respect of international notes (Eurobonds) with the simultaneous issuance of domestic bonds under Czech law by NET4GAS, our advice and assistance regarding the change in issuer of bonds from Home Credit B.V. to Home Credit Group B.V., or our role on the recent issuance of bonds under Czech law by U.S. company Liberty One Methanol LLC guaranteed by a financial guarantee by KKCG AG. In addition, our team also assisted MONETA Money Bank with the establishment and update of its domestic debt issuance programme. It is the first ever debt issuance programme of a Czech bank that allows not only for issuance of plain vanilla bonds, but also for issuance of subordinated instruments, which can be eligible for Tier 2 regulatory capital purposes, and for issuance of senior non-preferred bonds that may be issued as MREL eligible instruments to meet the relevant requirements imposed on the bank.
All of these and some other transactions and advice on which we have worked in the past year are strongly innovative as they represent historically first transactions of their kind on the Czech market and under Czech law.