Marcell Szőnyi

Practice Areas

Marcell Szőnyi is a partner in Dentons’ Budapest office. He focuses primarily on the areas of real estate, corporate and financing transactional work, and commercial contracts. He has been involved in numerous acquisitions and disposals and high-value commercial contracts, as well as IP work. He is also a pioneering expert and an enthusiast advocate of artificial intelligence and automated driving technologies, and as such an active member of Dentons’ Global Autonomous Vehicle services group.

Work Highlights

- French portfolio management company: Advising the client, on their first ever investment in CEE and on the Hungarian market – the acquisition of ‘Freedom Palace’, a historic first-class office building in Budapest city center.

- Leading owner of income-generating real estate in the Czech Republic, Berlin Poland and the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) region:

Advising the client with a portfolio valued at over €20 billion, on the sale of their Budapest office buildings portfolio to S IMMO AG. The portfolio includes Gateway Office Park, Arena Corner, Andrássy Palace and five towers of BC99 Office Park, with about 110,000 sq.m. of lettable space.

Advising on the sale of Airport City Logistic Park including a 44,000 sq. m state-of-the-art storage buildings and 8,000 sq. m office building complex to WING, one of the largest real estate companies in Hungary.

- Japan based fiber manufacturing company: Advising on all legal aspects of its greenfield investment in a new manufacturing plant in Hungary.

- Leading Class “A” office building and shopping mall investor and developer in CEE: Advising on the sale of its Belgrade office portfolio to an American-Hungarian owned real estate investment manager. The portfolio covered 11 buildings within 5 business parks of a total 122,175 sqm gross lease area with high occupancy rates, located in the New Belgrade district.

- Hungarian private equity fund owned and managed by an affiliate of the National Bank of Hungary: Advising on the acquisition from a leading private equity firm of a Dutch holding company that owns a 61 percent stake in a leading Class “A” office building and shopping mall investor and developer.

- The largest hotel group in Central and Eastern Europe: Advising on the sale of 85.8 percent of its shares by its majority shareholder, a world-leading hotel group. This is the largest tender offer for a WSE-listed company launched in 2019.

- A member of a leading Hungarian investor group: Advising on its sale of Eiffel Square, a prime office complex in central Budapest.

A major US private equity firm: Advising on its acquisition and subsequent sale of Sofitel Budapest Chain Bridge Hotel in Budapest city center.

- Leading European real estate investment manager: Advising on the acquisition of Luxus Department Store, a prime retail-led asset in downtown Budapest.

- A world-leading sports equipment manufacturer: Advising on their various retail leases in Hungary.

- A leading developer in autonomous driving technology: Advising on various investment, corporate, commercial, data privacy and regulatory issues.

- One of the world's leading car rental companies: Advising on lease transactions and data privacy matters.

- Major US-based software engineering company: Advising on their office leases in Hungary.

- A major South African real estate investor and developer: Advising on the acquisition of a majority stake in the largest shopping mall on the Buda side of Budapest, from a leading global private equity firm.

- A German asset manager: Advising the acquisition of premium office buildings in Budapest.

- A world-leading project development and construction group: Advising on the sale of the elegant and energy-efficient Nordic Light office building in Budapest’s Váci Corridor to an Austrian retail fund.

- A leading real estate company concentrating on long-term investments, real estate lease and asset management in CEE and Germany: Advising on the acquisition of a portfolio of 11 retail properties across the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Romania from CBRE Global Investors, one of the world’s largest real estate investment management firms.

- A German real estate fund manager group: Advising on their acquisition of Váci 1, an exclusive mixed-use commercial building in downtown Budapest.

- A Netherlands-based company that provides mapping and location data and related services: Advising on various privacy, data protection and regulatory issues, including in relation to the use of cameras on public roads, with the representation of the client at the Hungarian Data Protection Authority.

- One of the largest producers of rearview vision systems for the automotive industry: Advising on various legal issues, including regulatory, commercial contracts, corporate, financing and state subsidy matters.

- A global entertainment company: Advising on its acquisition of a TV broadcaster portfolio in Hungary.

Languages Spoken

English and Hungarian