Reff sees more fiscal litigation, expects slight M&A revival

Reff & Associates, the law firm affiliated to Deloitte in Romania, has seen an increase in the number of M&A transactions in the country lately and expects a revival in business for law firms this year.

However, there have been changes related to price guarantees, as well as a sharing of the risk between seller and buyer, according to Alexandru Reff, partner with Reff & Associates.

“For the first time we have seen downward adjustments and deals which have been revisited,” says Reff.

Litigation work has made up a greater proportion of lawyers’ activity lately, with fiscal litigation keeping them busier.

In this area lawyers have started to ask for success fees, but it is as yet too early to tell what ratio of fiscal litigation cases are successful for the firm due to the length of the process.

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Fiscal litigation makes up 70 percent of all litigation, according to Reff & Associates, and companies have started to ask for interest on the repayment of VAT. “We recently won a VAT repayment case after 10 months, which resulted in the payment of millions of euros to the client,” said Georgiana Singurel, manager with Reff & Associates.

Overall, the law firm expects to have a similar turnover this year as it did last year.

“The growth will not be as spectacular as it was in previous years, of 40 to 70 percent,” said Reff. Last year the firm handled several transactions on the real estate and retail segments, as well as on the banking scene.

Overall, it assisted in EUR 1 billion of transactions in 2009, according to the firm.

The company has assisted New Europe Property Investments (NEPI) in taking over a EUR 63 million retail project from BelRom and in taking out a EUR 113 million loan from KBC.

Corina Saceanu