M&A is a core practice for Lambadarios and Melina plays a key role in the firm’s success here, specializing in delivering the high quality in due diligences that underpins successful transactions.
Melina has advised on company formations and major corporate restructurings for a wide range of clients, both domestic and international. She has also played a pivotal role in a number of key transactions for Lambadarios, including the privatizations of DEPA, the public gas corporation. She advised DEPA on its €1 billion demerger, the largest corporate transformation in Greece in the oil and gas sector, and on the formation of two separate entities DEPA commercial and DEPA infrastructure; on the acquisition of several wind farms and hydroelectric plants for an international buyer, and; on the Medtronic Covidian and the Dow Dupont global mergers, advising the local mergers.
Alongside supporting our own direct clients, Melina works closely with Baker McKenzie LLP’s London office on major restructuring projects and tax-related matters in Greece across a wide range of sectors including telecoms, software development, electronics, consumer goods, music and entertainment, mining, energy, payment systems, home appliances, building materials and technology.
Notable M&A cases
Public MA & Privatizations
- Advising DEPA the public gas corporation on the €1 billion restructuring of the group and subsequent privatization by the HRADF. This transaction is the largest restructuring ongoing in Greece in the Energy sector. It is one of the largest reverse mergers under the new corporate transformation law. It is also part of the Greek privatization program, having been agreed with the EU, ECB and the IMF, and part of the liberalization of the Greek gas market under the unbundling of the gas services.
- Advising DEPA the public gas corporation on the privatization process run by the HRADF for the sale of DEPA Commercial.
- Advising DEPA the public gas corporation on the privatization of DEPA Infrastructure through a privatization process run by the HRADF for the sale of the gas grid infrastructure around Greece.
- Advising DEPA the public gas corporation on the sale of the 51% it currently holds in EDA Thess, the gas distribution company of Thessaloniki, to ENI SpA and the simultaneous acquisition of 49% of the Attiki Gas Distribution company, the largest in the country from Shell, as part of the unbundling and liberalization of the Greek Gas market for €200m.
- Advising DEPA the public gas corporation in its acquisition of a 20% equity share participation in the SPV for the construction and operation of the floating storage regasification unit of Alexandroupoli, a strategic energy project of approximately €500m that will develop the port of Alexandroupoli in the north of Greece as an energy hub connecting several pipelines that supply LNG to Europe.
- Advising the HRADF (Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund) for the sale of 5% of the Hellenic Telecommunications Organization (ΟΤΕ) to Deutsche Telecom for €280m as part of the privatization program of the Hellenic Republic.
- Advising a consortium of Glencore and Carlyle Group on the international public tender for the acquisition of a majority stake and the privatization of Hellenic Petroleum for over €1 billion.
- Advising Switz Group on the acquisition of a company manufacturing traditional Cretan bakery listed on the Athens Stock Exchange.
Private Equity & Other Financial Investors
- Advising Alpha Bank on the first REO transaction in our jurisdiction – the sale of a portfolio of real estate assets to Brooklane Capital for €90m.
- Advising Alpha Bank for the sale of three major real estate assets against the purchase price of approximately €37m through a shares sale and purchase transaction sold to Brooklane Capital. This transaction included a large cinema complex in the Athens Metro area.
- Advising Brooklane Capital on an acquisition of a portfolio of 200 real estate assets from Eurobank for over €100m.
- Advising LoneStar, a leading US fund, on the potential acquisition of a €1 billion NPL portfolio tendered by Alpha Bank.
- Advising LoneStar, a leading US fund, on the potential acquisition of a €1.6 billion NPL portfolio tendered by Piraeus Bank.
- Advised Fortress in its effort to acquire the €280m car-rental company AVIS from Piraeus Bank.
- Advising Briq REIC on the acquisition of a hotel in Skiathos against the purchase price of €3.5m through a share sale-and-purchase transaction.
- Advising Leading European REIC, a publicly listed real estate company, in multiple acquisitions of shares and real estate assets in Greece totalling over €60m.
- Advising Hines on the acquisition of several hotels in Crete through two major share sale-and-purchase transactions valued in total at approximately €70m.
- Advising Hines on the acquisition of two hotels in Ag. Nikolaos Crete through the acquisition of shares valued at €20m and subsequent refurbishment and repositioning of the assets for a total project value of over €40m.
- Advising Hines Inc. on a joint venture with the National Bank of Greece (NBG) to redevelop Athens Heart Mall into a 22,000-square-meter premium-outlet mall, named Gazi Outlets.
- Advising Hines on the acquisition of Academy Gardens, a large plot of land for development in the outskirts of Athens.
- Advising Hines on the acquisition of an office building in the centre of Athens.
- Advised Hines and Henderson Park on the bid for King George, a landmark hotel located in the centre of Athens.
- Advised Hines and Henderson Park on the bid for Hilton Athens Hotel, a landmark hotel located in the centre of Athens.
- Advising Hines on the acquisition of a large hotel complex owned and run by a global tour operator.
- Advising Chenavari Investment on the acquisition of a large number of real estate assets through multiple share sale-and-purchase transactions.
- Advising EBRD on its equity participation in the newly established Energy Exchange, which will be the new regulator of a new capital markets organization comprising the IPTO (the independent power transmission operator), LAGIE (the Greek operator for electricity market), the Athens Stock Exchange (ATHEX) and the Cyprus Stock Exchange. This project is highly significant because it’s part of the deregulation of the Greek energy market and a strategic undertaking of the Greek state under the Memorandum of Understanding signed with its lenders.
- Retained by Energean Oil and Gas to advise on the investment by Third Point LLC for €100m.
- Dolphin Capital and Third Point LLC on the due diligence and acquisition of Credit Agricole Leasing Hellas, a company with approximately €450m of finance lease receivables and nearly 2,000 contracts across Greece as well as 150 properties and 200 employees.
Global MA
- Advised UK company Sony Europe Limited on its cross-border merger with Sony Hellas, the first cross-border merger to take place in Greece by virtue of Greek Law 3777/2009 transposing Directive 2005/56/EC on cross-border mergers.
- Advising on the local aspects of the Medtronic-Covidien global merger valued at US$49.9 billion.
- Advised Chemical Company Dow on the local aspects of the merger between Dow Chemical Company and DuPont.
- Advising Whirlpool on its Indesit Greece business transfer agreement and the subsequent merger by absorption of Indesit Greece by Whirlpool Hellas.
- Advised on the local aspects of the US$3.4 billion acquisition of Motorola Solutions Enterprise business by Zebra technologies.
Private MA
- Advising El Sewedy Electric in the legal due diligence and €55m acquisition of four SPVs currently operating wind farms in Greece.
- Advising Olympic Foods on a €30m cross-border merger with a leading Indian conglomerate in the food business.
- Advising Camelot Group of Companies, the operator of the UK lottery, on a share acquisition in Greece.
- Advising Energean Oil & Gas SA on the merger by absorption of its subsidiary Kavala Oil SA.
- Advising Nostira Renewable Energy on the sale of two wind farms to Cubico Sustainable Investments.
- Advising ICON Infrastructure on the due diligence for an acquisition on three wind farms and 12 PV parks.
- Advised Quest Holdings on a due diligence report on a company active in the renewable energy market.
Corporate Restructuring
- Advising Sony Music on its group restructuring through intragroup share transfer transactions and subsequent mergers by absorption of EMI Greek subsidiaries by Sony.
- Advising on the corporate restructuring through the absorption of two local EMI entities by Sony Music.
- Advised on the global restructuring of Sealed Air Corp.
- Advised on the global corporate restructuring of Swedish company Oriflame Cosmetics.
- Advised on the corporate restructuring of Hewlett Packard.
- Advised on the supply-chain restructuring of the business of Diversey Inc. a provider of commercial cleaning sanitation and hygiene solutions for businesses.
