BOJOVIĆ & PARTNERS WINS THE PRESTIGIOUS AWARD THE BEST LAW FIRM OF THE YEAR AT THE SECOND ANNUAL CIJ AWARDS SERBIA, HELD AT THE HYATT REGENCY HOTEL IN BELGRADE, 5 DECEMBER. IVAN GAZDIĆ, HEAD OF THE B&P’S REAL ESTATE PRACTICE WAS HONORED TO RECEIVE THE PRIZE ON BEHALF OF THE FIRM.
“We are delighted about this prestigious award and we would like to thank everyone who voted. We are pleased to see that our hard work has not gone unnoticed”, said Ivan.
Our real estate department was very busy this year.
In the retail industry, we advised Poseidon Group on the development and financing of the largest retail park in Belgrade (Capitol Park Rakovica) and all of its other real estate projects in Serbia (Capitol Park Sombor, Capitol Park Šabac, Capitol Park Leskovac, etc.).
When it comes to the leases, with vast experience in acting for both tenants and landlords, we have a real understanding of the issues our clients face in managing real estate and anticipating their future operational requirements. We are dealing with triple net leases on regular bases and this is a significant part of our real estate team’s day to day activity.
This year we have been providing full legal support (including negotiation of all leases) to our recently won client – one of the largest Turkish retail chain DeFacto to enter the Serbian market. Speaking of retail internationals, it is also worth mentioning that we have been providing full legal support to adidas for many years, including legal support to its retail and franchise stores.
In one of the largest lease deals in Belgrade in the recent period, we acted for Sutherland in negotiations for the lease of 3,454 m2 with the Airport City Belgrade (the class A office business park) for the establishment of Etihad Airways’ customer service centre.
In the hotel industry, this year we advised on construction and property matters regarding The Hotel Jugoslavija and its restoration and conversion into The Kempinski hotel, we also acted for EBRD for the purpose of project finance restructuring regarding the development of a luxury hotel chain in Montenegro, and provided the real estate advice to UK investment fund Tenth Planet in connection with the development of a luxury tourism complex in Montenegro on the coast of the Adriatic Sea
2017 brought successful results in advising Halkbank and EOS Matrix on management on large portfolio of NPLs and the real estate collaterals.
We were also involved in other large deals in 2017 that had a significant real estate aspect, such as advising a financier on public-private partnership (PPP) for the rehabilitation of the largest Belgrade’s landfill in Vinča, then we acted as the local legal counsel to National Bank of Greece in its sale of Serbian Operations (Vojvodjanska Banka AD, NBG Leasing doo), and also acted for the recently won client JLL for the purpose of legal due diligence of an old industrial complex in Belgrade.
Prestigious CIJ Awards for results in commercial real estate sector have been presented at gala event before an enthusiastic crowd of the country’s most important property professionals and companies.
The upbeat mood of the audience was matched by the quality of the nominated projects on offer, as the Serbian economy is growing faster than it has done in years. Nearly a dozen awards categories were decided through a combination of Jury voting and votes from on-line voters. The results were revealed at the prize giving ceremony that followed a four-course dinner served in the hotel’s Crystal room.
More about CIJ Awards can be found here.