COBALT

Managing Partners: Jaanus Mody (Estonia), Dace Silava-Tomsone (Latvia), Lauris Liepa (Latvia), Irmantas Norkus (Lithuania), Darya Zhuk (Belarus)
Number of partners: 40 in the Baltics (Estonia - 12)
Number of lawyers: 165 in the Baltics (Estonia - 66)
Languages:Estonian, English, Finnish, German, Italian, Russian

Firm Overview:
COBALT is a closely integrated alliance of top-tier law offices across the Baltics and Belarus uniting more than 200 attorneys and lawyers. The firm’s legal professionals offer leading–edge legal solutions in all key areas of business law: banking and finance, capital markets, mergers and acquisitions, EU law, competition, dispute resolution, restructuring and bankruptcy, real estate and construction, energy and infrastructure, employment, IP, IT and regulatory, environmental law, transportation and tax.

Main Areas of Practice:

Banking & Finance:
2 partners, 10 fee earners based in Tallinn, Estonia
■Advising Port of Tallinn, an Estonian state-owned company, on organising IPO — the first IPO of a state-owned company in almost two decades
■Advising Luminor Bank on entering into a strategic partnership with Blackstone. The transaction represents one of the largest private equity deals in the Baltic history
Key Clients: Luminor Bank, Nordea, DNB, European Investment Bank, Swedbank, SEB Bank
Contacts: Kristel Raidla-Talur, Marina Kotkas
Emails: [email protected], marina. [email protected]

EU & Competition:
1 partner, 4 fee earners based in Tallinn, Estonia
■Advising Luminor Bank on obtaining an approval from the European Central Bank for carrying out a cross-border merger in the Baltics, which foresees continuing operations in all Baltic countries through Estonian bank and its registered branches in Latvia and Lithuania
■Successfully representing UEFA in the dispute between Eesti Meedia (now Postimees Grupp) and the Estonian Competition Authority
Key Clients: Ragn-Sells, Luminor Bank, Alexela Group, UEFA
Contact: Elo Tamm
Email: [email protected]

Corporate & Commercial:
2 partners, 8 fee earners based in Tallinn, Estonia
■Advising European Diversified Infrastructure Fund II (First State Investments) on investment in Utilitas, leading private Estonian energy group.
■Advising the funds (Apax Funds) advised by Apax Partners LLP on acquiring 100% of the shares in Baltic Classifieds Group OÜ (BCG), a company holding of a portfolio of online classifieds ads services in the Baltics
Key Clients: First State Investments, BaltCap, DiDi Chuxing, TMB Group, Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG, KID ASA
Contact: Martin Simovart, Peeter Kutman
Email: [email protected], [email protected]

Dispute Resolution:
5 partners, 15 fee earners based in Tallinn, Estonia
■Successfully representing a client in a complex insurance dispute and achieveing one of the biggest business interruption compensations in Estonia so far
■Successfully advising Nordea and DNB banks regarding default syndicate loan and other claims against Estonian largest dairy producer Tere. The case involved complex parallel proceedings (restructuring, bankruptcy, various other civil, administrative and criminal proceedings). The legal work made it possible for the banks to transfer all of their claims to Tere’s main competitor Maag Grupp
Key Clients: European Commission, Ragn-Sells, Luminor Bank, Port of Tallinn
Contact: Jaanus Mody
Email: [email protected]

Employment:
1 partner, 4 fee earners based in Tallinn, Estonia
■Advising Estonian flag-carrier Nordica in civil court proceedings initiated by former employees of Estonian Air, where the plaintiffs claim that there has been a transfer of Estonian Air enterprise to Nordica and therefore Nordica is liable for all the monetary claims that the plaintiffs have against Estonian Air
■Advising Luminor Bank on reorganising its management structure and cross-border merger, including on corporate and employment law matters.
Key Clients: Luminor Bank, AbbVie, Nordic Aviation Group
Contact: Karina Paatsi
Email: [email protected]

Energy & Infrastructure:
2 partners, 2 fee earners based in Tallinn, Estonia
■Advising the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications in drafting a model energy performance contract for the public sector
■Advising Alexela Varahaldus on the investment by Wärtsilä Corporation to Hamina LNG terminal
Key Clients: Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, First State Investments, Alexela Group
Contact: Aivar Taro, Elo Tamm
Email: [email protected], [email protected]

Intellectual Property:
1 partner, 4 fee earners based in Tallinn, Estonia
■Advising MCF Group Estonia, a company that unites Finnish and Estonian investors and technology experts, on legal matters pertaining to the development of a data centre. The project’s cost is estimated at 100 million euros and it will be the biggest data centre in the Baltic States
■Serving wide variety of venture capital funds in relation with start-ups (MeetFrank, Taxify, Festivality, Minut, inc, SpectX etc)
Key Clients: Change Ventures, Karma Ventures, Rubylight
Contact: Egon Talur
Email: [email protected]

Real Estate:
1 partner, 4 fee earners based in Tallinn, Estonia
■Advising Porto Franco in the development of the biggest shopping centre in the Tallinn city centre
■Advising Nasdaq Tallinn Stock Exchange-listed investment fund Baltic Horizon Fund on acquisition of Postimaja shopping center located in the heart of Tallinn
Key Clients: Baltic Horizon Fund, Northern Horizon Capital, Corum Origin
Contact: Aivar Taro
Email: [email protected]

Tax:
1 partner, 4 fee earners based in Tallinn, Estonia
■Advising shareholders of TMB Group on selling its business to Consolis Group, one of Europe’s leading suppliers of precast concrete solutions. Our work comprised of advising the client in all aspects of the transaction, including solving tax matters in transaction
■Advising Change Ventures on tax setup of a limited partnership fund in Estonia. The work has so far included advising on and assisting to set up the tax structure and providing detailed overview on the tax related questions
Key Clients: Change Ventures, Port of Tallinn, Helmes
Contact: Egon Talur
Email: [email protected]