The Legal 500

Muşat & Asociaţii is the leading firm in Romania in the field of mergers and acquisitions, both in terms of volume and in terms of value of the transactions concluded during January-July 2012. According to the latest preliminary report released by DealWatch, a company specialized in the mergers and acquisitions market survey, Muşat & Asociaţii ranks first in both league tables, having successfully concluded 5 transactions, in total amount of Euro 68.14 million.

"Muşat & Asociaţii's mergers and acquisitions team is one of the most active and representative teams on the market, whose results led to the firm recently being awarded <<Best Law Firm in Central and Eastern Europe>> by International Legal Alliance Summit & Awards 2012. We have been and continue to be involved in complex transactions, developed both at national and multijurisdictional level, materialized, due to our lawyers' great efforts, knowledge and expertise, in successful negotiations for our clients. The results are so much more valuable in the current political and economic context", stated Mona Muşat, Managing Partner Muşat & Asociaţii.

During the first seven months of the year, Muşat & Asociaţii has counseled OPSPI in the secondary public offer for the sale of 15% of Transelectrica, successfully completed at the end of March, and assisted NOKIA in the sale of the production factory to De'Longhi. Also, Muşat & Asociaţii team provided legal assistance to an important German investor - Thomas Manns - in acquiring Astra Vagoane, Meva and Romvag (deemed as the most complex acquisition in 2012), and counseled the investment fund HKD Global Industry Ventures Limited in the takeover of the meat processing company Integra SRL. Additionally, the cross-border transaction by which Eldorado Gold Corporation took over the activities that European Goldfields Limited had been developing in our country in the field of gold deposit exploitation was concluded with the assistance of Muşat & Asociaţii.

Another handled major project which required complex legal assistance of lawyers specialized in several areas of practice was the bid amounting to EUR 200,000,000 submitted by Oz Minerals Limited, a top mining company in Australia specializing in copper extraction, for the acquisition of Cuprumin S.A., the company holding the mining rights over the largest copper deposit in Romania, representing approximately 60% of the national reserves.

Muşat & Asociaţii is currently involved in the privatization processes of the chemical producer Oltchim Râmnicu Vâlcea and the National Rail Freight Company - CFR Marfă, but also in the majority of the large projects developed on the capital market, such as the secondary sale of 15% of Transgaz shares, the launch of the initial public offering for the sale of 20% of Tarom, but also in the development of the primary public offering for the sale of 10% of the share capital of Hidroelectrica.

Muşat & Asociaţii's expertise in mergers and acquisitions spanning over 20 years is constantly acknowledged by the renowned international guides - Legal 500, PLC Which Lawyer?, IFLR 1000 and Chambers & Partners, which recommend the firm and its lawyers as leaders in this field.

About MUŞAT & ASOCIAŢII

MUŞAT & ASOCIAŢII is one of the first law firms established in Romania, after January 1, 1990. Having 16 partners and over 100 lawyers and counsellors, MUŞAT & ASOCIAŢII provides consultancy services in all sectors of business law, including mergers & acquisitions, privatizations, banking law, energy & natural resources, competition, corporate law, telecom & IT, labor law, taxation, capital markets, real estate law, environmental law, commercial litigations & arbitrations.

MUŞAT & ASOCIAŢII is acknowledged as one of the pillars of business law in Romania, and foreign specialized publishers (Chambers & Partners, Practical Law Company, International Financial Law Review, Legal 500, etc.) regularly recommend the firm as one of the law market leaders, many of the firm's lawyers being, in their turn, nominated by such publishers as part of the Romanian business law elite.

Muşat & Asociaţii has recently won the Gold Award in the category "Best Law Firm in Central and Eastern Europe" for excellent results registered on the Romanian market by its team, both in terms of evolution of the portfolio of mandates represented during 2011 in the mergers & acquisitions area of practice and in terms of the management strategy adopted.

Also, MUŞAT & ASOCIAŢII is the first law firm on the local market having been awarded the prestigious accolade "The National Law Firm of the Year" by the British specialized publisher International Financial Law Review (IFLR), which also publishes the well-known international legal guide IFLR 1000. Also, the reputed publisher Chambers Europe awarded MUŞAT & ASOCIAŢII the accolade "Romanian Law Firm of the Year", for the law firm with the best performances in Romania, within the "Chambers Europe Awards for Excellence 2011" gala.

MUŞAT & ASOCIAŢII regularly provides legal counsel to the most reputed and esteemed corporations in Romania, including a third of the Top 100 and half of the Top 500 largest companies, as well as to local public and financial institutions in sophisticated corporate and financial transactions and in complex conflict resolution procedures. The firm's portfolio comprises over 2,500 clients, most of which from the foreign investors category, among which: Enel SpA, GDF Suez, Rompetrol, Colas, European Investment Bank, RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland), ING Bank, Fortis Bank, KBC Bank, Raiffeisen Bank, Banca Transilvania, BNP Paribas, OTP Bank, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, Roche, Abbot, General Electric, General Motors, Microsoft, Intel, Oracle, Google, AON, Amazon.com, AT&T, Nokia, Alcatel - Lucent, Telecom Italia, Thyssen Krupp, Generali, AFI Europe, Electrolux, Caterpillar, Monsanto, Deutsche Bahn, SAB Miller, etc.

For more information please visit www.musat.ro