The Legal 500

Veit Öhlberger is an expert in arbitration, contract and corporate law as well as in M&A. He first gained work experience at DORDA BRUGGER JORDIS while studying law and went on to join the firm as an associate after graduating. In 2008, he worked in Beijing at the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC) administrating cross-border arbitrations. After that, he gained more valuable knowledge of Chinese business law at the Beijing office of the internationally renowned business law firm Beiten Burkhardt. In April 2009, he returned to DORDA BRUGGER JORDIS.

Andreas W. Mayr and Jürgen Kittel, partners and M&A experts at DORDA BRUGGER JORDIS, advised Vienna Stock Exchange listed Best Water Technology Group (BWT) on the acquisition of the pharmaceutical water activities of listed company Christ Water Technology AG (CWT) as well as on the acquisition of a 49% stake in Zeta Group. Due to corporate governance reasons, the transaction has been voluntarily approved in both BWT's and CWT's annual shareholders' meetings.

Andreas W. Mayr and Christoph Brogyányi, partners and capital market experts at DORDA BRUGGER JORDIS, acted as Austrian underwriters' counsel for the joint bookrunners in Erste Group's EUR 1.74 billion capital increase. Mayr and Brogyányi advised Goldman Sachs International and J.P. Morgan, who acted as Joint Global Coordinators and Joint Bookrunners alongside Erste Group in this capital increase. DORDA BRUGGER JORDIS was also counsel to the co-lead managers Citi, Credit Suisse and UBS. This was one of the largest capital market transactions in Austria in 2009.

Paul Doralt, Partner at DORDA BRUGGER JORDIS, was elected to the board of the International Bar Association's Global Tax Committee. He will serve as co-chairman for 2 years. The IBA has a membership of 30,000 individual lawyers and roughly 195 bar associations. It covers a wide range of practice areas, which are organised into various legal committees. Since 2007, Paul Doralt has acted as the IBA´s Austrian national reporter on tax issues.

Stefan Artner, partner and head of DORDA BRUGGER JORDIS' real estate desk, and his team advised Sparkassen Immobilien AG on acquiring two office buildings – the new OMV headquarters and the Marriott Hotel - in the Vienna development area "Viertel Zwei". Sparkassen Immobilien AG is Austria's longest-standing property investment company and has been listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange since 1987.

Andreas Zahradnik, private equity expert and partner at DORDA BRUGGER JORDIS, advised Invest Equity on the sale Chemson Polymer Additive AG. Chemson is an internationally leading manufacturers of polymer additives with a global turnover amounting to nearly EUR 300 million.

Martin Brodey and Andreas Zahradnik, partners at DORDA BRUGGER JORDIS, have advised the Swiss Valartis Group on the acquisition of Anglo Irish Bank's Austrian private banking subsidiary, Anglo Irish Bank (Austria) AG. The acquisition was completed on December 19, 2008, after the Swiss Federal Banking Commission gave their approval. The Austrian Financial Market Authority also did not object to this transaction. The Anglo Irish Bank (Austria) AG will be renamed Valartis Bank (Austria) AG and its asset management subsidiary Valartis Asset Management (Austria) Kapitalanlagesellschaft mbH. Both parties have agreed not to discuss details of the purchase price.

DORDA BRUGGER JORDIS is delighted to announce that it has been named 'Austrian Law Firm of the Year' by International Financial Law Review (IFLR). The firm received this prestigious award at the IFLR Europe Awards in London on March 18, 2009.

Associate University Professor Alexander Schopper has been appointed Of Counsel at DORDA BRUGGER JORDIS, a leading business law firm in Austria. Since May 2009, he strengthens the firm's corporate finance and restructuring team headed by Andreas Zahradnik.