The Legal 500

Tuca Zbarcea & Asociatii

4-8 SOSEAUA NICOLAE TITULESCU, AMERICA HOUSE, WEST WING, 8TH FLOOR, SECTOR 1, 011141 BUCHAREST, ROMANIA
Tel:
Work +40 21 204 88 90
Web:
www.tuca.ro
Email:
Cluj Napoca, Bucharest

Cornel Popa

Tel:
Work 0040 21 204 88 94
Email:
Tuca Zbarcea & Asociatii

Work Department

Mergers, Acquisitions and Privatisations; International Arbitration; Corporate and Commercial; Competition.

Position

Cornel Popa is a Partner at Tuca Zbarcea & Asociatii. Cornel combines top technical skills with commercial acumen to deal with complex and diverse matters. His multi-disciplinary approach covers large domestic and international joint-ventures, mergers, acquisitions and privatization projects, as well as dispute resolution. Cornel Popa has represented buyers and sellers from a broad range of industries and various Romanian governmental authorities in relation to multi-faceted, sophisticated matters. He is acknowledged as one of the most experienced dispute resolution lawyers in Romania, having dealt with civil litigation, mediation, domestic and international arbitration and participated in many hearings before ICSID, ICC and the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. Furthermore, he was part of the team of lawyers having successfully defended the Romanian Government in three such ICSID arbitration cases while also currently being involved in a fourth one.

Career

Cornel Popa is one of the founding partners of Tuca Zbarcea & Asociatii. Cornel acted as a legal advisor for companies and institutions like: NIS Petrol, a member of Gazprom; OMV Petrom; Sofiproteol-Saipol; Colgate – Palmolive Romania; Zentiva; Orkla Foods; Interbrands; The Government of Romania; Hidroelectrica. He has been directly involved in some of the most important projects taking place on the Romanian market, including the following ones: co-coordinator of the legal team having successfully defended the Romanian Government in a complex international arbitration initiated by a foreign investor (EDF Services LTD) claiming over USD 100,000,000; coordinator of the legal team retained by Zentiva on a USD 200,000,000 transaction for the acquisition of the largest Romanian drugs producer, including the mandatory public offer on the Bucharest Stock Exchange Market; coordinator of the legal team retained by OMV Petrom in connection with a USD 100,000,000 sale-purchase transaction of several maritime drilling platforms and on-shore real estate and industrial equipment; representing in an arbitration proceeding concerning the development and management of an over EUR 140,000,000 shopping mall; representation in a GAFTA arbitration proceeding concerning the performance of corn sale purchase contracts (2010 crop); representation in an arbitration proceeding concerning the performance of a distribution contract regarding pharmaceutical products; assisting Interbrands Marketing & Distribution, the largest distribution company in the Romanian consumer goods market, in the acquisition of full ownership of Wella Romania, the local subsidiary of Procter & Gamble Group; advising NIS Petrol, a member of Gazprom, in relation to all its operations in Romania, including corporate, M&A, real estate, environmental and regulatory aspects; coordinator of the legal team assisting OMV Petrom in connection with the restructuring of the petrochemicals business carried out at Arpechim Piteşti industrial platform and subsequent sale thereof further to a transaction worth EUR 12,000,000; advising the Romanian subsidiary of Sofiproteol-Saipol - Expur SA - in a multi-million Euros transaction for acquiring some of the assets and industrial equipment owned by Cargill in Romania; member of the legal team assisting the Romanian Ministry of Justice in relation to the project “Technical Assistance for the Preparation of the enforcement of the New Civil Code, Criminal Code, Civil Procedure Code and Criminal Procedure Code”, by conducting an assessment from institutional, human resources, fiscal and economic perspectives; legal assistance to the leading advertising sales house for private electronic, interactive and mobile media in Switzerland, Goldbach Media Group, in connection with a acquisition of 72.7% of ARBOmedia Group; advising EMI European Media Investment AG (part of the Swiss Group Goldbach Media) on a multi-million Euros divestment of its Romanian subsidiaries involved in the editing of local leading newspapers.

Languages

English, French.

Member

Bucharest Bar Association; Multilaw.

Education

University of Bucharest (LL.B., 1995).

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Legal Developments by:
Tuca Zbarcea & Asociatii

  • How can the Romanian Constitution be revised

    Although its stability over time represents the essence of the Romanian Constitution (the “Constitution”) and of any constitution, such fundamental law within the Romanian legal system should at the same time, at any moment, represent both a frame of reference for the Romanian social, political and economical life and a reflection of such. Given the accelerated changes within the society, in order for the Constitution to be brought in line with the overall social, political and economical evolution and perspectives, a procedure for its revision and also the limitations in what regards the possibility for the Constitution to be revised are established by this fundamental law itself. .
    - Tuca Zbarcea & Asociatii

Legal Developments in Romania

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  • Romania: Wind of change on the Romanian renewable energy market - part II

    In the Legal Insights edition of 18 March 2013, we presented the potential changes to the Romanian renewable energy scheme, resulting from an unofficial working draft Government Emergency Ordinance (GEO) circulated on the market. This Tuesday (2 April 2013), a draft Government Emergency Ordinance on the amendment of Law no. 220/2008 was officially published on the website of the Ministry of Economy. The public is invited to submit comment within the next 30 days, to the e-mail address dezbateri_publice@minind.ro .
  • Romania: Wind of change on the Romanian renewable energy market

    Romania seems to be one of the most attractive CEE jurisdictions for renewable energy investments, due to the generous support scheme which generated increasing enthusiasm over the past few years. Implemented in 2005, the support scheme for renewable energy (RES) consisting of tradable green certificates (GCs) combined with mandatory acquisition quotas was improved in 2008 and subsequently in 2010, but was only applicable as of mid-2011, upon state aid clearance from the European Commission (EC).
  • How can the Romanian Constitution be revised

    Although its stability over time represents the essence of the Romanian Constitution (the “Constitution”) and of any constitution, such fundamental law within the Romanian legal system should at the same time, at any moment, represent both a frame of reference for the Romanian social, political and economical life and a reflection of such. Given the accelerated changes within the society, in order for the Constitution to be brought in line with the overall social, political and economical evolution and perspectives, a procedure for its revision and also the limitations in what regards the possibility for the Constitution to be revised are established by this fundamental law itself. .
  • Romania: New financial and fiscal legislative amendments

    Government emergency ordinance no. 8/2013 for the amendment and supplementation of Law no. 571/2003 regarding the Fiscal Code and the regulation of certain financial and fiscal measures (published in the Official Gazette no. 54/23.01.2013) enters into force starting from 1 February 2013. GEO 8 introduces a number of important amendments and supplementa-tions in the fiscal legislation. We shall further present some of the amendments related to di-rect taxation, respectively to social insurance.
  • COMMITMENTS PROCEDURE IN ANTITRUST CASES BEFORE THE ROMANIAN COMPETITION COUNCIL

    1. Background The Romanian Competition Law no. 21/1996 (the " Law ") has been adopted and amended on various occasions so that it reflects the evolution of the competition law provisions in the EU. On 6 July 2010 the Law has been substantially amended, introducing among other institutions the commitments procedure for anticompetitive practices. Previously, the commitments were available only in merger cases under the form of remedies. The commitments procedure has been detailed in RCC guidelines issued in December 2010 (the " Guidelines "), which have been amended at the end of year 2012.
  • Romania: Proposed new OTC trading arrange-ments for electricity

    Friday (11 January 2013), the Romanian energy market regulator (ANRE) published on its website for public consultation a proposal for a procedure and regulation on OTC electricity trading (the "Proposal"). ANRE has invited stakeholders to submit their comments by 21 January 2013.
  • VAT challenges in 2012; there’s plenty to come

    If the Romanian taxation system were under any sign, it would surely not have been Libra this year. Hence, the unbalanced practice of abrupt or disputed changes to the tax legislation persisted in disregarding the principles set forth in art. 4 of the Romanian Fiscal Code, whereby (i) the code is to be amended solely based on a law, (ii) the amending law must be advocated for, as a rule, six months prior to its entry into force, and (iii) any amendment to the code will enter into force starting the 1st of January following the year it was adopted.
  • The new 2012 Arbitration Rules of the Court of International Commercial Arbitration Court

    Authors: Luminita Popa, Partner Musat & Asociatii, Iulian Popescu, Partner Musat & Asociatii
  • Termination of Distribution Agreements in Romania

    The absence of a contract regulating the duration and termination of a distribution relationship does not necessarily entitle a party to abruptly terminate the agreement without facing financial exposure to the other party. In particular, a reasonable notice period should be given to allow the other party to adapt its business operations.
  • Guarantees under the New Civil Code

    After the New Civil Code entered into force on October 1, 2011, significant amendments were brought to the legal framework regulating the guarantees’ field, either by effective legislative changes to the existing institutions or by introduction of new types of guarantees. The New Civil Code also changed the terminology in the field (e.g. “mortgage” designates both securities over real estate and movable assets, while “pledge” is now referring only to a security interest with dispossession).