Schoenherr has advised an international consortium of creditor banks on a EUR 1 billion debt restructuring and refinancing of Slovenia’s Poslovni sistem Mercator d.d. and its subsidiaries — one of the most extensive, complex and challenging financial restructuring processes of its kind in this part of Europe.
Schoenherr acted as lead counsel to the co-ordinator Erste Group Bank AG and the co-ordination committee (consisting of Nova Ljubljanska banka d.d., Ljubljana; Raiffeisen Bank International AG; SKB banka d.d. Ljubljana; UniCredit Banka Slovenija d.d.; and VTB Bank (Austria) AG) of the more than 50 creditor banks.
Mercator group is one of the largest Slovenian corporate groups and the leading retail chain in Southeastern Europe. Schoenherr advised the creditors in all of the jurisdictions involved in the matter, namely Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia.
Mercator group and its creditor banks and financial lessors signed the comprehensive documentation for Mercator group’s financial restructuring June 9.
The Schoenherr team was led by Vienna-based partner Martin Ebner (practice group head banking & finance) and Slovenian attorney Vid Kobe. The core team also included the Vienna-based banking & finance lawyers Stefan Paulmayer (attorney at law), Leopold Höher (attorney at law), and Laurenz Schwitzer (associate). The transaction team further consisted of partners Christoph Lindinger and Wolfgang Höller, as well as Ana Filipov (partner, Ljubljana), Bojan Brezan (attorney at law), Primoz Rojac (senior associate) and Jurij Lampic (associate) in Slovenia; Arijana Petres (partner, Zagreb) in Croatia; Petar Kojdic (attorney at law) and Dusan Obradovic (associate) for Bosnia and Herzegovina (both located in Belgrade); Milos Lakovic (attorney at law) and Dejan Boric (associate) for Montenegro (both located in Belgrade); and Matija Vojnovic (partner), Petar Kojdic (attorney at law) and Luka Lopicic (attorney at law) for Serbia.
Houlihan Lokey, the leading global restructuring advisor, acted as financial advisor for the coordination committee.
Clifford Chance and Jadek & Pensa (Ljubljana) served as legal advisors to Mercator group, which was also advised by Lazard and PwC.
