CENTRAL AND
EASTERN EUROPE
BUDAPEST AT SUNSET
Camilla Sutton reports
THE GLOBALfinancialdownturnhasimpactedthe Central and Eastern European jurisdictions to varying degrees. Although some markets will
recover sooner than others, one thing is clear: this region
still offers opportunities for medium and long term
investment.
POLAND
Poland’s healthy bank sector withstood the economic
turbulence of recent years. ‘Poland in fact remains the
only country in the European Union that managed to
avoid the recession,’ comments Andrzej Tokaj, manag-
ing partner of Magnusson in Poland. ‘During the boom
times, the National Bank of Poland was very cautious in
its monetary policy. The Bank was criticized then for its
conservative approach, but at the end of the day it
turned out to be a very wise move.’
That said, the credit crunch did impact the legal
community – much of the work undertaken by the lead-
ing firms in Warsaw is based on foreign investors. ‘The
SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION
market has suffered, in particular due to the fact that
foreign owners of Polish subsidiaries suffered on their
home markets. The banking sector is a good example,
with Polish branches of foreign banks often being in
much better shape than their mother companies,’ continues Andrzej Tokaj.
Law firms have noted a distinct reduction in M&A
and real estate transactions as well as less financing
deals. ‘In contrast to the transactional matters, over the
last months we have been more active in such sectors as
public procurement – particularly infrastructure projects
which are partially due to the UEFA European Soccer
Championship that will take place in Poland in 2012,
insolvency matters, labor law and litigation,’ comments
Przemyslaw Pietrzak managing partner of Schönherr’s
Warsaw office.
‘Clients are more cautious and less eager to take risks.
Interestingly, numerous big deals relate to the public
sector,’ says Andrzej Tokaj. ‘The most recent public offering of PZU which took place in May 2010 was the largest
