Managing Partner Yannis Kelemenis has been interviewed by EnergyWorld, the Greek magazine on the SEE energy market, on the challenges facing the Greek energy market. His interview can be viewed here.

Following a prolonged cross-border litigation dispute, Kelemenis & Co. has successfully pursued and enforced a claim, arising from a European Payment Order, against Frigoglass Romania. Rivimetal was established in 1970 initially serving the Greek market with aluminum, zinc and brass castings. Today RIVIMETAL is addressing the global market and is primarily an exporter to the EU as well as Russia, China, Indonesia and South Africa. Its clients include Audi, BMW, Porsche, Scania, Volkswagen, Fiat, Aston Martin, Daimler, Schneider Electric, ABB, Siemens, Domus and Zogometal.

Η Κελεμένης & Συνεργάτες ενήργησε για την Meeting Point, θυγατρική του μεγάλου γερμανικού τουριστικού ομίλου FTI, σε θέματα συμμόρφωσης με τους νέους κανόνες προστασίας προσωπικών δεδομένων GDPR και εφαρμογής τους στις ελληνικές θυγατρικές της, Meeting Point Hotel Management, Anixe Technology Hellas και Youtravel.com.

The firm has been instructed by Ascot Insurance to advise on the licensing requirements for offering blue water hull insurance services to Greek insureds and the intermediation of local licensed brokers. Ascot is an insurance and reinsurance business founded in 2001 with four operating divisions: Ascot Underwriting, the Managing Agency for Syndicate 1414 at Lloyd’s; Ascot Bermuda, which writes excess insurance and reinsurance as well as managing the Group’s alternative capital vehicles; Ascot U.S., a specialty insurance provider to middle market customers through retail and wholesale brokers in the United States, and; Ethos Specialty, a New York headquartered Managing General Underwriter (MGU) which provides underwriting and insurance services to third parties. Ascot Group is owned by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), the largest pension plan in Canada.

Managing Partner has today acted as moderator of the Greek Banking Panel (Greek Banking: Legal Framework & New Developments on The Horizon) at the Athens NPL Investing & Servicing Summit 2019 held at the Wyndham Grand Hotel. The Summit hosted several hundred delegates involved in the Non-Performing Loans market from more than 30 countries.

TECHNOCAN has engaged Kelemenis & Co. to act on its on-going legal matters ranging from corporate issues and contract review to GDPR and IP matters. TECHNOCAN is a leading tinplate and plastic can manufacturer that provides packaging solutions for a wide range of products such as olive oil, food, paints, chemicals, aerosol and promotional items, as well as printing solutions to can-making companies.

Kelemenis & Co has successfully represented Desyllas Games, a leading manufacturer and importer of board games and children’s toys, in a trademark and copyright violation matter against a major Italian toys manufacturer. The matter was concluded by the Italian manufacturer recalling all products violating Desyllas’ IP rights from the Greek market.

The firm has undertaken on an on-going basis the support of Pylones S.A. in public procurement procedures in Greece. Pylones is a regional player in the IT industry offering information technology infrastructure, network and security integration solutions.

ММТ GmbH, an Austrian energy company investing in the renewable energy sector, has instructed Kelemenis & Co. to undertake all corporate work relating to setting up its Greek subsidiary and advising on all regulatory, licensing and tax aspects of investing the Greek renewables sector. MMT Greece plans to pursue acquisitions and greenfield projects in the Greek solar and wind energy market.

The firm has represented the founding shareholder of PharOS Pharmaceutical in the multi-million sale of his shareholding interest to DIORAMA Investments Sicar S.A. managed by DECA Investments AIFM, an Alternative Investments Fund Manager (“AIFM”) regulated by the Hellenic Capital Markets Committee. PharOS is a pharmaceutical company developing, manufacturing and supplying generics and value added products with a presence in 98 countries, a global portfolio of more than 73 products and over 7,800 marketing authorisations worldwide.

The firm has been engaged by the consortium of North China Power Engineering and General Electric to advise throughout the process of their bid relating to the project for the supply and establishment of a flue gas desulphurization system in a Greek steam-electric power station. The project’s value is estimated at 100 million euro. North China Power Engineering is a high technology enterprise that was established by reforming the original North China Electric Power Design Institute founded in 1953 under the Chinese Ministry of Electric Power. It supplies high-level engineering consultation, survey & design and general contracting services. General Electric, one of the oldest clients of Kelemenis & Co, is the well-known American multinational conglomerate incorporated in New York City and headquartered in Boston. It operates segments of aviation, healthcare, power, renewable energy, digital industry, additive manufacturing, venture capital and finance, and lighting.

Kelemenis & Co. has been retained by EYDAP, the Athens Water Supply and Sewerage Company, to advise on corporate compliance matters on an on-going basis. The Athens Water Supply and Sewerage Company (EYDAP S.A.) is the largest company of its kind in Greece and serves approximately 4,400,000 customers (2,160,000 water meters) with a length of water pipelines that reaches 14,000 km. The sewerage sector serves 3,500,000 residents with sewers spreading at almost 9,500 km. It is listed on the Main Market of the Athens Stock Exchange since 2000.

Kelemenis & Co. has been instructed by the Greek power distribution company DEDDIE to act in a major regulatory dispute against the Greek Regulatory Authority for Energy (RAE) involving the timely payments to renewable energy producers by DEDDIE and PPC, the Public Power Corporation. DEDDIE or HEDNO S.A. (Hellenic Electricity Distribution Network Operator S.A.) was formed by the separation of the Distribution Department of PPC, the Public Power Corporation, in 2011. Although a 100% subsidiary of PPC, it is independent in operation and management retaining independence requirements. The company deals with the operation, maintenance and development of the power distribution network in Greece.

The firm has successfully represented AEPI, the oldest and largest collective administration organization in Greece for musical works, in its application for bankruptcy at the Athens Court. Kelemenis & Co. had previously secured a provisional order and later an injunction preventing AEPI’s creditors from enforcing any claims against the company.

The firm has successfully raised and recovered a claim of Caspian Transport against a Greek shipping company. Caspian Transport Services is a forwarding company offering a full range of services for the organization of cargo transportation to the countries around the Caspian Sea.

Kelemenis & Co. has been instructed by Phenomenex to recover a debt relating to its Greek distribution and amend its distribution arrangements in Greece. Phenomenex develops analytical chemistry solutions offering high-pressure liquid chromatography columns and applications. It operates worldwide and is part of the Danaher Corporation, a Fortune 500 conglomerate (ranked 160th) that designs, manufactures and markets professional, medical, industrial and commercial products and services.

The firm has been instructed by Lappas Clivanex, a leading Greek manufacturer of ovens and bakery machines, to represent the company in commercial and employment litigation. Lappas Clivanex was established in 1960 and produces automatic and semiautomatic lines for production of the puff pastry for fresh or frozen products and constructs ovens and bakery machines. Its lines and machines are exported and operate in Saudi Arabia, France, Sweden, East Europe, South America, and various countries in the Middle East.

The firm has been asked to deal with regulatory aspects of the operation of Europamundo’s  coaches in Greece. Europamundo is one of the largest tour operators in the world and part of the JTB group, the largest travel company of Asia.

The firm has successfully recovered a VAT refund relating to the refit of a commercial mega yacht at Piraeus, Greece.

Kelemenis & Co. has been made the counsel of the Greek subsidiary of Baumit to deal with the full range of corporate, commercial, employment, tax and litigation needs of the company in Greece. Baumit is a building materials brand and its product range includes products in the field of facades, plasters, screeds, products for the interior and for garden and surface design. It is represented in more than 30 countries, has a turnover of over 1.2 billion euro and employs more than 3,300 employees. It is part of the Schmid Industrie Holding, which is represented by over 100 companies and 130 production facilities in 27 countries and has around 6,200 employees worldwide.

After a litigation dispute that lasted for more than a decade, Kelemenis & Co. has secured an appellate judgement awarding Chevron a €1-million tax refund. The refund relates to the transfer shares tax that the Greek tax authorities had demanded from Chevron at the time of the Chevron – Texaco merger.

The firm has represented Cretan Olive Mill in its acquisition of a major bottling facility in Crete. Cretan Olive Mill started as a family run business in 1866 and it is now one of the leaders and oldest companies in Greece in the field of producing, bottling and exporting Extra Virgin Olive Oil from the region of Crete.

The firm has undertaken the adjustment of the articles of association of Sideris Insurance to the new Greek law on société anonyme (Law 4548/2018). Sideris Insurance is a Greek insurance company founded in 1978 specializing in property insurance.

The firm has acted for Belron in the sale of its Greek subsidiary overseeing the process from drafting and reviewing the contractual documents all the way to closing. Belron is a world leader in vehicle glass repair and replacement operating across 35 countries and employing over 25,000 people. Belron’s brands include Autoglass in the UK, Carglass in most of Europe and Safelite in the US.

Kelemenis & Co. has been instructed by Tata SIA Airlines, the operator of Vistara, to advise on agency arrangements, registration and licensing requirements and tax and regulatory compliance involving Vistara’s business in Greece. Tata SIA Airlines Limited, operating as Vistara, is an Indian full-service airline, which has its hub at the Indira Gandhi International Airport. It is a joint venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines. It is the 6th largest Indian airline serving 34 destinations with a fleet of 40+ aircrafts comprising Airbus A320, Boeing 787 and Boeing 737-800NG.

The firm has acted in a civil and criminal complaint relating to the medical liability of the clinic raised by a Greek patient and has successfully ended the matter.

The firm has been engaged by the UK parent company of Peligoni Club to advise on the tax and regulatory implications of personnel secondment arrangements.  Peligoni Club is a members-only beach club retreat in the secluded north of the Greek island of Zakynthos.

The firm has acted for insurance company Ydrogeios, a leader in the Greek property insurance market, in the sale of the company’s stake in its Cypriot subsidiary. In doing so, besides overseeing the entire contractual documentation, Kelemenis & Co. has undertaken to observe all formalities arising from SOLVENCY II with the Bank of Greece, the supervising authority of the Greek insurance market. The Solvency II Directive is the EU Directive that codifies and harmonises the EU insurance regulation.

Kelemenis & Co. has successfully represented Greek and Turkish tour operators and travel agents in defending penalties imposed by the Greek State for not observing Greek legislation on cross-border trafficking between the Turkish coast and Greece. Initially, the firm was successful at freezing the enforcement of the penalties before the Administrative Court of Piraeus and then precipitated the change of the relevant legislation (through art. 3 of Law 4587/2018) to reflect a fairer treatment of the obligations of tour operators and travel agents in observing immigration and cross-border trafficking rules.

Bournemouth University has engaged Kelemenis & Co. to litigate Greek claims. BU is is a public university in Bournemouth, Dorset, with its main campus situated in neighbouring Poole. The university was founded in 1992 and currently has over 16,000 students, including over 3,000 international students. The university is recognised for its work in the media industries.

Managing Partner Yannis Kelemenis has attended the 6th Frankfurt Gas Forum at the Schlosshotel Kronberg in Frankfurt on 12 and 13 December 2018. The Forum attracted a distinguished line-up of the most influential German, European and American energy leaders and government decision makers. The off-the-record and non-attribution discussions at the Forum enabled the dissemination of market insight regarding the diversification of European gas supplies.

The firm has been engaged by Bioderma to incorporate its Greek subsidiary and advise on the full range of commercial, corporate, employment, regulatory and tax requirements arising from its Greek operations. Bioderma Laboratories is a privately owned French pharmaceutical company that specialises in medication for dermatological and hair/scalp conditions, as well as for pediatry and cell regeneration. Its primary business sector is Dermatology, with products such as ABCDerm, Atoderm, Cicabio, Créaline, Hydrabio, Matriciane, Matricium, Sébium, White Objective, Secure (skin care), Nodé (hair care) and Photoderm (sun care).

Kelemenis & Co. has been instructed by the Hong Kong office of global law firm Mayer Brown to advise on the implications of the insolvency proceedings of Folli-Follie, following the outbreak of the scandal surrounding Folli-Follie’s operations, on the loan facilities of FF at the Far East.

Kelemenis & Co. has been instructed by TBC Bank of Georgia to advise the bank on a wide range of issues relating to Greek banking regulations. TBC Bank is one of the largest banks in Georgia, owning more than a third of retail marketing and servicing over 1.5 million customers through a network of 135 branches. It is the second largest lender and has 30% of the deposit market. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

The firm has been instructed to act for German-based investor for the acquisition of a majority stake in Helistar. The acquisition was followed by a major capital injection to enhance and expand the operations of the Greek entity. Helistar is a Commercial Air Transport Organization with an Air Operator Certificate (AOC) issued by the Greek State as an EASA member, through the Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority (HCAA). Helistar is based at the Megara airport and operates Eurocopter EC135 and Eurocopter EC120 helicopters. Dr. Kelemenis speaks at ALBA

Athens, 19.11.2018

Dr. Kelemenis has been invited, as in previous years, to speak at the graduate students of the ALBA MBA programme on entrepreneurship at the Greek services market and his own experience of starting up a law firm in Greece.

The firm has undertaken to advise the Serbian Regulatory Authority of Energy in the approximation of Serbian legislation and practice with the Third Energy Package of the EU and the Energy Community. The project’s main features include the assistance to AERS (the Serbian energy regulator) for the enhancement of existing and the development of new regulatory mechanisms to enable the Serbian RAE to implement successfully the provision of the 3rd Energy Package and especially the requirements of the Electricity and Gas Directives in its day-to-day activities. The firm has primarily undertaken to assist with upgrading AERS’ regulatory framework for quality of services, establishing criteria for assessing the need for price regulation in certain electricity market segments and offering technical assistance with TSO certification and compliance.

Kelemenis & Co. has been engaged by Taxperience, an independent tax and legal advisory company with subsidiaries in various European countries, to act for the protection of the Taxperience trademark in Greece following its use by a Greek accounting firm. The Trademark Tribunal has accepted the complaint of Taxperience and has disallowed the use of the trademark in Greece.

Further to undertaking the civil end of DEPA’s €110-million claim against ELFE, the largest fertilizers producer of the country, the firm has also undertaken its criminal end. Following the filing of a criminal complaint, the Public Prosecution Office of the Athens Court has charged several individuals led by Lavrentis Lavrentiadis, a Greek controversial businessman involved in the financial scandals of Proton Bank, pharmaceutical company Alapis and chemicals company Neochimiki, for fraud and other related offences. The criminal complaint and the charges that followed it have brought to the surface the involvement of Manolis Petsitis, an individual linked to the SYRIZA government, and have hit the news as an on-going financial and political scandal.

The firm has been engaged by Swiss tax consulting firm Primetax on VAT refund to Getty images under the MOSS regime. Kelemenis & Co. has undertaken and overseen the process which was halted due to gaps in the operation of the MOSS refund process, which were successfully tackled by the firm.

The firm has been engaged by UK-based Oliver Agency on accommodating its collaboration with Adidas in Greece and complying with local employment compliance requirements. In so doing, the firm has: (a) advised on the transfer of employees, (b) reviewed the terms of employment agreements, (c) drafted service and outsourcing agreements; and (d) advised on local compliance requirements. Oliver Agency specialises in helping advertisers take marketing services in-house and on-site.

The firm has been engaged by E. & K. TASSIS to advise the company on all its public procurement bids in Greece. E. & K. TASSIS was founded in 1996 and deals with the design and manufacture of metal parts and constructions using production methods such as hot formation, cold shaping and metals welding.

The firm has successfully concluded the recovery of a 4-million euro tax refund from the Athens Tax Office for Limited Liability Companies. The refund related to the refund of VAT for the years 2007 to 2009 and 2013 to 2015.

The firm has sponsored the team of students of the University of Athens Law School at the annual competition of the Foreign Direct Investment International Arbitration Moot which is to be held at St. Petersburg and Stockholm in November 2018.

In compliance with recent legislative changes, Kelemenis & Co. has undertaken the establishment of the Greek branch of the operator of the 34m luxury super yacht “Cyrus One” along with the yacht’s licensing and tax registration and compliance requirements in Greece.

Following a critical victory of the arbitration over the shareholding dispute within the Sbokos family in relation to the demerger of the Sbokos Hotels Group, which led to the decision to sell part of the Group’s holding company, Kelemenis & Co. has overseen the process of the nearly €100m sale to the Vassilakis Group. The Sbokos Hotel Group is one of the leading hotel groups in Greece owning such hotels as Blue Palace at Elouda, Agapi Beach, Cretan Malia Park, Koutouloufari Village Holiday Club, Village Heights Golf Resort and the Sheraton Rhodes Resort.

The firm has decided to act as the Gold Sponsor to the Greek Summer School on International Investment Law of ELSA Athens. The summer school will be run in association with the Athens Public International Law Centre of the Law School of the University of Athens and under the auspices of the Ministry of Education. ELSA comprises of a membership close to 54,000 law students and recent law graduates who are interested in law and have demonstrated commitment to international issues. ELSA operates primarily through its local groups, such as ELSA Athens of the Athens Law School, which are located at more than 300 universities in 44 countries in Europe.

The firm has undertaken the liquidation of the last remaining Sunpower Greek subsidiaries. SunPower Corporation is a global energy company that delivers complete solar solutions to residential, commercial, and power plant customers. The Company’s segments include the Residential Segment, the Commercial Segment and the Power Plant Segment.

The firm has been engaged by North China Power Engineering to advise on the Greek regulation of licensing, constructing and operating solar thermal power plants in Greece. Solar thermal power (electricity) generation systems collect and concentrate sunlight to produce the high temperature heat needed to generate electricity and differ from photovoltaic parks. The assignment involved the review of (a) possible barriers to entry in the RES market both of the Interconnected System and of the Non-Interconnected Islands and (b) the regulatory, employment and tax legal framework regarding the establishment of such undertaking in Greece. North China Power Engineering is a high technology enterprise that was established by reforming the original North China Electric Power Design Institute founded in 1953 under the Chinese Ministry of Electric Power. It supplies high-level engineering consultation, survey & design and general contracting services.

Kelemenis has undertaken the full advisory support of The Yacht Week, a leading regional sailing company, on a wide variety of employment matters covering the structuring of employment of foreigners in Greece, working hours, secondment arrangements, immigration compliance, leave entitlement and health and safety at work.

The firm has been retained by the customer care platform of Dokteronline.com to advise on the application of the Cross-border Healthcare Directive (Directive 2011/24/EU) into Greek legislation and on various regulatory aspects of online prescriptions and the remote delivery of drugs and medicines in Greece.

The firm has joined UK consulting firm E.Co. in offering technical assistance to the Government of Georgia (and particularly the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia) for the development of an energy efficiency law that will adopt and implement the Energy Efficiency Directive (2012/27/EU) into Georgia’s legislation. Kelemenis & Co. has undertaken drafting articles of the law regarding finance and public awareness and energy production, cogeneration/distribution/ billing as well as amending relevant primary and secondary legislation and drafting appropriate secondary legislation/technical regulations.

The firm has advised VP brands, the leading Bulgarian producer of wines and spirits, on Greek corporate law and the setting up of its Greek operations. VP Brands International (Vinprom Peshtera) was established in 1939 and is one of the largest Bulgarian producers of bulk and bottled wines and spirits. Its brands include Domaine Peshtera wines, Peshterska grape brandy, Flirt vodka, Alaska vodka, Black Ram whiskey, Sixth Sense dry gin, Peshtera anise spirit and mint liqueur. The company has concentrated its spirits production in the southern town of Peshtera and operates a wine cellar in the nearby town of Saedinenie. The plant in Peshtera has a daily processing capacity of 200 tons of grape, four production units and 11 bottling lines.

Kelemenis & Co. has undertaken to litigate for a variety of multi-million litigation claims of the Greek power distribution company DEDDIE against major power self-producers such as Motor Oil, Hellenic Petroleum, Elfe and Kavala Oil. DEDDIE or HEDNO S.A. (Hellenic Electricity Distribution Network Operator S.A.) was formed by the separation of the Distribution Department of PPC, the Public Power Corporation, in 2011. Although a 100% subsidiary of PPC, it is independent in operation and management retaining independence requirements. The company deals with the operation, maintenance and development of the low-voltage power distribution network in Greece.

The firm has been engaged by Costas Papaellinas, a leading importer, distributor and exclusive agent in Greece and Cyprus for a wide variety of high quality branded products in the fields of health, care and beauty, to act on the acquisition of the Greek food company Chatziathanasiou. Costas A. Papaellinas (Hellas) S.A. is the Greek arm of the Greek – Cypriot Costas Papaellinas Group of Companies.

The firm has been engaged by BEH to advise and oversee the process of acquisition of a stake at Gastrade S.A., the SPV for the construction and operation of the Alexandroupolis LNG terminal at the North of Greece that has been instigated by the Copelouzos Group. The Alexandroupolis Independent Natural Gas System (INGS) project comprises an offshore floating unit for the reception, storage and re-gasification of LNG and a system of a subsea and an onshore gas transmission pipeline through which the natural gas will be shipped into the Greek National Natural Gas System (NNGS) and beyond. BEH holds a leading position in the electricity and gas market in Bulgaria and, through electricity exports, in the Balkans. It is wholly owned by the Bulgarian State and is the largest state-owned company in terms of total assets in Bulgaria. The Group owns the main electricity generation facilities in the country as well as the electricity transmission grid and the gas transmission and transit networks. The Group is also the public supplier of both electricity and gas in Bulgaria. Its market share of electricity generation was 59% in 2015, had an installed electricity generation capacity of 6.3 GW and generated 29.24 TWh of electricity. BEH is the successor of the state-owned company Neft i Gas (Oil and Gas) established in 1973 and later renamed to Bulgargaz.

The firm has overturned the judgement of the Piraeus Court of Appeal relating to the severance claims of the former CEO of insurance company General Union at the Greek Supreme Court. General Union had terminated the employment contract of its CEO (and former shareholder) without paying any severance on the basis that his overall conduct constituted cause for denying the CEO any severance. Both the first instance court and the appellate court ruled otherwise, yet the Supreme Court held the opinion that the CEO’s overall conduct caused critical problems to the goodstanding of the company that made his entitlement to severance questionable, which the court of appeal failed to see or address properly.

Kelemenis & Co. has acted for Metaxa in the acquisition of vineyards in the Greek island of Samos, which are intended to be used for the construction of facilities that will promote the local Muscat wines. Metaxa was founded in 1888 by Spyros Metaxas and today is arguably the best known Greek brand in the world.

DEPA, the Greek Public Gas Corporation, has instructed Kelemenis & Co to represent the company in its dispute with ELFE, the largest fertilizers producer of the country, over the 110-million debt that ELFE owes to DEPA. ELFE’s operations have become increasingly controversial following its acquisition by Lavrentis Lavrentiadis, a Greek businessman who has been tied to the financial scandals of Proton Bank, pharmaceutical company Alapis and chemicals company Neochimiki.

The firm has been instructed by a large number of OPAP shop owners from Athens and mainland Greece to act against OPAP following the introduction of the new OPAP Agents’ Regulation and the termination by OPAP of all agency agreements that comprise its Greek network. Claims range from clientele indemnity all the way to loss of profits and moral damages.  OPAP (the Greek Organisation of Football Prognostics S.A.) is the gambling monopoly that holds the exclusive rights to organize and manage numerical lotteries and sports betting games in Greece. It was founded in 1958 and following its full privatization in 2013 it holds its exclusivity rights until 2030.

The firm has been engaged by HomeExchange.com, the leading international platform offering more than 400,000 homes in 187 countries, on the rules recently introduced by Greek legislation on the regulatory and tax treatment of short-term vacation rentals.

Name partner Yannis Kelemenis will act as the key legal advisor in the consortium led by KANTOR Management Consultants which has been selected by the Athens Exchange to advise towards the development of a clearing house for the purposes of the Greek electricity market under EU regulation 714/2009 (and Greek Law 4425/2016). Dr Kelemenis will primarily involved in
> Identifying conflicts, incompatibilities and improvements in the current legal framework (Laws 4425/2016 and 4001/2011)
> Proposing specific amendments in the legislation to allow for a futures market operation, if decided
> Proposing indicative time schedule for possible amendments
> Preparing consultation material for futures market operation if finally decided

The consortium which Kelemenis & Co. has joined was awarded a major advisory contract involving energy efficiency projects of seven major municipalities in the Athens Metropolitan Area. The municipalities joined efforts to launch showcase energy efficiency and renewable energy projects, utilizing innovative financial tools and attracting private investments. The projects comprise energy efficiency interventions in 116 municipal buildings, integration of a total 3.2 MW of photovoltaics on the roofs of these buildings and re-lamping for the municipal lighting. Total energy savings is 45.6 GWh/y and renewable electricity production is 4.8 GWh/y. Total cost for interventions is 20.24 M€ and the PRODESA cost is 1.06 M€.

To achieve its objectives the project shall focus on optimal bundling of the fragmented municipal projects to achieve considerable size, reasonable payback time and risk diversification. Bundling is also expected to lower processing costs. Pooling of resources is used to optimize financial results for all parties and to ensure high participation of ESCOs in the tenders. The newly introduced National Revolving Fund for Energy Efficiency and the Utility ESCO Fund will be part of the pool. Pooling will facilitate the exploitation of innovative financing schemes. Crowd-funding has been recently introduced in the Greek legislation and this tool will be carefully studied and applied.

The winning consortium PRODESA is the first of its kind effort in Greece and aims to significantly contribute to the Energy Performance Contracting take-off. For this reason the project consortium has pooled together Key Actors such as the National Center for energy efficiency, the European crowd-funding Network and entities with technical, financial and legal expertise. Being a showcase project, it emphasizes on capacity building, replicability, dissemination and exploitation of results. Two replicator municipalities are directly involved in the project and a network of at least 30 replicators will be initiated with the help of the Central Union of Municipalities of Greece.

The firm has been retained by Hellenic Capital Leasing (formerly Emporiki Leasing) to advise the company on regulatory and contractual aspects of commercial leases, especially those involving the hotel industry. HC Leasing, the former leasing arm of Emporiki Bank, was acquired by Sankaty, the investment arm of Bain Capital, in 2014.

Kelemenis & Co. has retained its Tier 1 status in the latest Legal 500 edition for 2017. For yet another year the firm has remained in Tier 1 for Energy and achieved Tier 2 rankings in various practice areas such as Commercial, Corporate & M&A, Insurance and Employment. Name partner Yannis Kelemenis has been referred to in five practice areas. Senior associate Persi Bouna has been named “Next Generation Lawyer” in Insurance.

The firm has won a moral damages claim against the Greek Capital Markets Commission on behalf of a certified public accountant of an international auditing firm. The claim arose from the tortuous conduct of the Greek Capital Markets Commission which accused the public accountant (auditor) of contributing to the stock manipulation of a listed super markets chain and imposed a heavy fine upon him. Initially Kelemenis & Co. dealt successfully with the annulment of the fine as groundless and then moved to raising a tortuous claim for moral damages against the Capital Markets Commission. The recent ruling awarding moral damages to the certified public accountant is understood to be the first of its kind in Greece.

The firm has completed the first phase of its support to GE Wind Energy advising on tax, employment and regulatory aspects of the implementation of recently contracted projects in Greece of a total value in excess of €800 million.

The firm was instructed earlier this week by AEPI, the oldest and largest collective administration organization in Greece for musical works, to act as its legal advisor in connection with its corporate and financial restructuring following a recent regulatory audit of the organization and its financial review by E&Y which were instructed by AEPI’s supervising authority, the Greek Copyright Organisation (OPI), and triggered an on-going media coverage.

The firm has been instructed by Clorox to review the company’s distribution agreement under the perspective of Greek law. The Clorox Company is an American worldwide manufacturer and marketer of bleach and cleaning products. It is listed with the NYSE and is a Fortune 500 company.

The firm has acted for Italian food company Granarolo, the largest Italian food company in the milk production chain with activities in more than 60 countries, on the acquisition of the majority stake in a leading Greek dairy company (Quality Brand Foods) with distribution and trading activities in Greece, Bulgaria and Cyprus. Besides seeing the process to a successful closing, the firm has also undertaken all related formalities and hearings before the Greek Competition Authority.

As in recent years, this Christmas Kelemenis & Co. has made a donation to support the work of the Greek charity “Ark of the World”. This time the firm has donated a new Mercedes mini bus for the transportation of the children living at the charity’s facilities on the Greek Island of Chios.

The firm has been retained to advise Statkraft on a complex regulatory matter relating to the liability of market participants for power market deficits and involving the Greek Power Market Operator, on the one hand, and Greek power market participants such as Statkraft, on the other. Statkraft is a leading company in hydropower internationally and Europe’s largest generator of renewable energy. The Group produces hydropower, wind power, gas-fired power and district heating and is a global player in energy market operations. Statkraft has 3800 employees in more than 20 countries

Managing Partner Yannis Kelemenis spoke as a guest lecturer on Friday, 25.11.2016, at ALBA’s graduate seminar run by Professor Paul Emmanuelides on Strategic Management focusing on the Greek legal market and the forces in managing and developing a Greek law firm. ALBA is the graduate business school of the American College of Greece.

Kelemenis & Co. has been instructed by KKR to advise the investment firm on Greek investment targets in the food and the energy sectors. KKR, one of the best-known investment firms globally, manages investments across multiple asset classes, including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate, credit strategies and hedge funds. At present its assets under management exceed $130 billion. To date, KKR has not made investments in Greek companies and explores the prospect of doing so.

The firm has been retained by UK-based tech startup Yourmoods Ltd. to advise on its corporate set-up, to oversee contractual and escrow arrangements (the firm also acting as an escrow agent for angel investors), to draft shareholders’ agreement and to act as on-going legal advisor.

The firm has been retained by Technopolis Group, a consultancy founded in the UK in 1989 and since then expanded to various other countries around the globe, and German law firm Schalast & Partner, with which Kelemenis & Co. share membership in international legal association Multilaw, to advise them on the transposition of EU intellectual property law into Greek legislation. The work of the consortium is funded by the EU.

Kelemenis & Co. has acted for CDB in relation to several bank transfers that will be made for the repayment of a facility granted by CDB in 2013 to 14 Greek companies and 68 solar parks generating electricity of approximately 31 MW in total. Kelemenis & Co. had acted for CDB in relation to the above 57-million facility, including amongst others an Assignment Agreement by which each Greek SPV assigned to its Cypriot parent company all amounts to become due by the Greek Power Market Operator to the Greek SPV for the purchase of electricity produced by its photovoltaic stations. Following the capital controls that were imposed on Greek banks in the summer of 2015, which meant that that the Greek Power Market Operator could no longer make payments abroad, Kelemenis & Co. has undertaken the secure these payments toward the repayment of the facility for as long as the funds need to stay in Greece.

The firm has been retained by the listed Polish company Intercars S.A., a major player on the spare parts market in Eastern and Southeastern Europe, on the setting up of its Greek subsidiary while overseeing and planning all tax and corporate aspects of the entity.

The firm has contributed the Greece chapter to Thomson Reuters’ “Investing in…” Global Guide which has just been published. The volume has come under the Practical Law Company (PLC) series of Thomson Reuters and under the auspices of First Law International, the international law association of which Kelemenis is a member. The volume provides a global insight from leading lawyers of the key factors affecting inward investment.  To read the chapter, click here.

The firm acted for FTI, the third largest German tour operator, and its subsidiary Meeting Point in the long-term lease of four hotels on the Greek island of Rhodes with a total capacity of 860 rooms and 2000+ beds.

The firm has been retained by Georgian Post, the state-owned company for the provision of postal and courier services of the Republic of Georgia, to act for the incorporation of its Greek subsidiary, for undertaking any tax formalities, for dealing with all regulatory compliance and licensing requirements, and for overseeing any residence permit and tax registration requirements for ex-pat directors and officers.

The firm advised the dairy company “Olympos”, one of the largest dairy companies in Greece, in a major refinancing agreement with two of Europe’s leading credit institutions.

The firm has been acting for The Smile of the Child, the biggest charity for children in Greece, in a complex, cross-border litigation (involving Greece, the US and the Netherlands) over a substantial estate, which has been inherited to the charity, yet the validity of the inheritance is being disputed by the US relatives of the deceased. The firm has been working together with American law firm Duane Morris on the matter.

Kelemenis & Co. has retained its Tier 1 in the latest Legal 500 edition for 2016. For yet another year the firm has remained in Tier 1 for Energy and achieved high rankings in various practice areas such as Commercial, Corporate & M&A, Insurance, Dispute Resolution, Tax and Employment.

Kelemenis & Co. acted as Greek Counsel of the Bank of Cyprus in relation to a pledge placed on listed shares owned by a Cypriot company under a €150-million facility. The Borrower and the Bank agreed to re-designate the terms of several facility agreements by a new facility agreement. To secure the repayment of the new facility agreement, a pledge was agreed to be placed on the listed shares owned by the Borrower in a Greek company. Given that the Bank has been appointed as a Security Agent, Kelemenis & Co. has been instructed to advise on how the (Greek) pledge could be established in favour of a Security Agent, to draft the relevant pledge agreement and to prepare all the documents required to be filed with the Greek Central Securities Depository for the formation of the pledge.

Kelemenis & Co. has been instructed to review the template Distributor Agreement, the Sales Terms and Conditions and the Purchase Terms and Conditions drafted by the USA counsels of Bray, to adjust them to Greek law and to then prepare the Greek versions of the documents. This task of Bray International Inc., one of the premier valve manufacturers worldwide, is part of an international project 38 jurisdictions.

The firm has advised pro bono Deree College of the American College of Greece on how student internships should be modeled to comply with employment legislation and regulatory requirements. Located in Athens, and originally founded in 1875 Smyrna, Deree – The American College of Greece is the oldest American-accredited college in Europe and the largest private college in Greece.

The firm advised the Greek branch of Lloyd’s on the recently legislated premium tax for marine insurance and particularly the way it is expected to be imposed in practice.

The firm has established on behalf of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community the community’s Greek association. Ahmadiyya is the leading Islamic organization to categorically reject terrorism in any form.  Founded in 1889, it spans over 206 countries with membership exceeding tens of millions. Its current headquarters are in the United Kingdom.

Senior associate Kalliopi Vlachopoulou has updated the firm’s chapter for Thomson Reuters’ Media, Advertising, & Entertainment Law Throughout the World edited by Andrew Ulmer for the forthcoming 2016 edition. Written by members of MULTILAW, one of the world’s leading associations of independent law firms in which Kelemenis & Co. is a member, Media, Advertising, and Entertainment Law Throughout the World provides a concise overview of media, advertising, entertainment, and art law in more than 30 countries. This resource provides a starting point for media and entertainment attorneys and business people in understanding the law of other countries. The text is organized by country for easy reference and contains uniformly organized.

Managing Partner Yannis Kelemenis spoke as a guest lecturer at the graduate MBA seminar of the Hellenic American University focusing on business aspects of the Greek legal market.

The firm has joined the International Travel Law Network (ITLN) as the network_s Greece member. ITNL is a fast growing association of lawyers across the world and particularly Europe who specialise in travel and leisure law. The firm_s membership builds upon its strong expertise in the travel and leisure industry for both domestic and international travel companies and hoteliers. For more about the firm_s Hotels & Leisure Practice click here and for ITLN click here.

West Thomson Reuters has today published Release 2015-4 of “Digest of the Commercial Laws of the World” in which name partner, Yannis Kelemenis, has revised his chapter on Greek Commercial Law. The 159-page chapter replaces the one he had authored in 2012 for an earlier edition of the “Digest”, at the time published by Oceana Publications of the Oxford University Press.

The firm has acted as Greek Counsel to the Bank of Cyprus in relation to the security provided under a Facilities Agreement by two major Greek construction companies listed at the Athens Exchange.

The firm has been retained by Swiss tax firm PrimeTax to advise on possible VAT implications of the acquisition of a yacht in Greece under domestic tax legislation. The advice deals with the particular circumstances of the acquisition including the commercial vs non-commercial character of the vessel as well as its flag and the nationality of the owning company.

The firm has been engaged by Clifford Chance, one of the largest law firms in the world, to advise on the legal approximation of the EU energy efficiency legislation in Greece. The advice has been asked by one of the world_s largest pharmaceutical companies. Over the past ten years Kelemenis & Co has been engaged by Clifford Chance on various occasions to advise some of its global clients on several regulatory matters.

Foley & Lardner, a leading American law firm with 900+ attorneys and 20 offices in the US and abroad, has retained Kelemenis & Co. to examine the prospects of enforcement of an American judgment upon the Greek shareholders of an American company in Greece.

The firm has been engaged by Stinson Leonard Street to assist the American law firm with Greek aspects of the American proceedings against a Greek-American sued on grounds of a multi-million fraud.

Kelemenis advised Swiss Life, the largest life insurance company of Switzerland, in relation to unit-linked financial products. The firm has been asked to deal with the regulatory framework for the selling of unit-linked products by insurance undertakings operating in Greece under the Freedom of Services (FoS) regime while complying with Greek Insurance and Capital Markets legislation as well as regulations of the Bank of Greece.

The firm has been engaged by Granarolo, the largest Italian agro-industrial group, to handle a major commercial claim against a Greek customer both in terms of securing the necessary court orders and enforcing them. Granarolo, the largest Italian milk supply chain and the largest Italian producer of yogurt, is directly owned by producers operating as a co-operative serving daily more than 60 thousand sales points and 11 million customers.

GE Aviation is the latest General Electric entity to be advised by Kelemenis & Co. The firm_s engagement involves issues over the performance of public contracts concluded by GE Aviation with the Greek State in the recent past.

Dr. Yannis Kelemenis and Ms. Lydia Zogopoulou have authored a chapter on royalties in Greek petroleum concession agreements for the latest volume of the Energy law Series edited by Nikolaos Farantouris which this time focuses on the Greek Law of Hydrocarbons. The volume has been published by Athens law publisher Nomiki Bibliothiki (for a copy of the paper in Greek click here). Dr. Kelemenis has also been a contributor in the previous two volumes of the Energy Law Series.

The firm_s chapter on Greece for the Multilaw guide on “How to Hire and Fire: A Global Guide by Multilane” has been revised by Senior Associate, Eleni Pitsa, and the e-book can be accessed here.

The latest newsletter of the firm is now available online. Click here to gain access to its electronic version.

This Christmas Kelemenis & Co., instead of sending Christmas cards by post, has chosen to support financially the work of Greek charity “Ark of the World” with a donation of €5,000. “Ark of the World” is a non-profit organization that takes cares of children experiencing racism and social exclusion. To find out more about the impressive work undertaken by the “Ark of the World” since its inception in 1998, you can visit its webpage at www.kivotostoukosmou.org.

The firm has successfully represented a regional exclusive distributor of Fiat and Alfa Romeo cars against the Greek fully owned subsidiary of Italian manufacturer Fiat before the Greek Supreme Court (Court of Cassation). The case related to clientele indemnity and other claims arising from the termination of the exclusive distributorship, which the regional Fiat and Alfa Romeo dealer had raised against Fiat. Following the decision of the Athens Court of Appeal in 2013 (for the full text of the judgment, click here), which awarded the Fiat dealer, also represented by the firm at the time, the full amount of the requested clientele indemnity and some other related claims, Fiat filed a petition with the Supreme Court of Greece (Areios Pagos) asking for the dismissal of the Court of Appeal judgment. Although the petition was rejected (for the full text of the judgment, click here), Fiat denied to pay the award by attempting a suspension of enforcement. The suspension application being eventually denied, Fiat was forced to pay through enforcement proceedings.

Kelemenis & Co. has filed a petition to commence arbitration proceedings for the demerger of the Sbokos Hotel Group, one of the leading hotel groups in Greece owning such hotels as Blue Palace, Agapi Beach, Cretan Malia Park, Koutouloufari Village Holiday Club, Village Heights Golf Resort and Sheraton Rhodes Resort (http://www.sbokoshotels.gr/ourhotels-en.html). The proceedings follow the reluctance of some of the shareholders to complete the demerger as it had originally been envisaged in 2013. The firm has been acting for one of the four Sbokos families owning the Group.

Following an open tender, Kelemenis & Co. has been awarded a service contract for the legal and tax support of the Centre for Renewable Energy Sources (CRES – http://www.cres.gr/kape/index.htm) in the development of the Greek market for energy services and particularly the (a) development of energy performance contracts (EPC), (b) the involvement of energy service companies (ESCOs), and (c) the conclusion of EPC contracts between ESCOs and the Greek State for the improvement of the energy performance of a number of targeted public buildings. The main objectives of the contract, whose is duration is 12 months, are the following:

Kelemenis & Co. has been retained to advise Burger King on all taxation matters relating to Burger King’s entry to the Greek market. Burger King, America_s second-biggest fast food chain with a presence in over 100 countries worldwide, has announced its intention to enter the Greek market through the joint venture Burger King Southern and Eastern Europe SA, set up to promote activities in Italy, Poland, Greece and Romania. Burger King SEE will have sub-franchise rights for all of those markets, where with the exception of Greece, Burger King is already present. The new venture will aim at “aggressive development” in Italy, Poland and Romania, and at its introduction in the Greek market.

Managing partner, Dr. Yannis Kelemenis, has been appointed to the President’s Advisory Council of the American College of Greece following an invitation of AGC_s President, Dr. David Horner. The President’s Advisory Council is made of 12 key representatives of the Greek business community and is intended to establish an ongoing, two-way communication between the Greek business community and the senior administration of the American College of Greece and its three entities (i.e. Deree, Pierce and ALBA). In so doing, the Council assists ACG and the President in pursuing the College’s growth and development objectives.

Latest Kelemenis Tax Alert on new tax legislation is now online. Please click here.

The firm has been retained to assist and advise in the process toward the drafting and finalization of the new law on the Greek retail gas market which has now gone under public consultation. The firm_s involvement started in May and has covered both identifying institutional issues and making drafting proposals.

The firm has acted for Swiss u-blox (SIX:UBXN), a leading provider of wireless and positioning semiconductors and modules for the automotive, industrial and consumer markets in the acquisition of Antcor, a Greek developer of Wi-Fi baseband intellectual property. The acquisition consists of a purchase of 100% of the shares of Antcor Advanced Network Technologies S.A. at a price of CHF 6.3 million, excluding an earn-out which offers the sellers the possibility to participate in certain future revenues of the company. The transaction gives u-blox immediate ownership of advanced Wi-Fi core technology that will enable the company to develop ruggedized communication solutions tailored to demanding environments. With headquarters in Thalwil, Switzerland, u-blox is globally present with offices in Europe, Asia and the USA (www.u-blox.com). Founded in 2004, Antcor (www.antcor.com) is a privately-held VC backed company with headquarters in Athens, Greece.

The firm has acted for PETROLINA, the largest Cyprus oil company, in the sale of its majority holding in the Hellenic Fuel Aviation Company (HAFCO). Having acquired 100% stake in HAFCO from CHEVRON in August of 2013, PETROLINA has now sold 50.1% of this holding to World Fuel Services Europe Ltd (WFS) and 24.5% to the Universal Group For Industry And Finance S.A. (Universal). PETROLINA has retained the remaining 24.5% of HAFCO. HAFCO is a limited company which holds the necessary licenses for the fueling service of aircrafts at Thessaloniki airport (SKG), Kavala airport (KVA), Zakynthos airport (ZTH) and Eleftherios Venizelos international airport in Athens (ATH). It also owns part of the infrastructure required to apply for authorization in relation to the provision of services to Heraklion airport (HER), Chania airport (CHQ) and Corfu airport (CFU). HAFCO was established in August 2002 by AVINOIL, a wholly owned subsidiary of MOTOR OIL (HELLAS) S.A. and CHEVRON, the latter eventually acquiring 100% of HAFCO_s shares before selling them to PETROLINA in 2013. Following the completion of the transaction, Kelemenis & Co. has been retained to act as on-going legal counsel to HAFCO.

Kelemenis has agreed to act as the on-going contributor on legal and regulatory matters for the recently launched _Energy World_, the bi-monthly energy magazine for Southeastern Europe (click here to view the first issue). The firm will focus on legal and regulatory developments that relate to the Greek market, yet it will occasionally make contributions that are of regional relevance. The new magazine builds upon the Greek version of the Energy World, which has been addressed to the Greek market over the past few years, to become a regional energy magazine covering the energy industry across the several countries of Southeast Europe.

Kelemenis & Co. has contributed a chapter to the 3rd inter-disciplinary volume _Energy_ which this time focuses on networks and infrastructure. The volume has been edited by Professor Nicholas Farantouris and hosts research that has been undertaken as part of a research programme under the auspices of the European Chair Jean Monnet and the Centre for European and International Affairs of the University of Piraeus. The volume follows the first volume “Energy: Law, Economy & Politics” (2012) and the second volume “Energy: Shipping” (2013). The subject of the third volume “Energy: Networks & Infrastructure” is structured in four sections. In the 1st section (“Law & Institutions”) wider institutional and legal matters come under examination. The firm’s chapter on the coordinated auction office of Southeast Europe for cross-border capacity is part of this section. The second section (“Regulation, Competition and State Intervention”) deals with the energy market in terms of both free competition and regulated state intervention. The third section focuses on technical and economic parametres of energy networks and infrastructure. Finally, the fourth section (“Institutional and Geopolitical Aspects of Hydrocarbons Exploitation”) examines institutional, political, economic and strategic aspects relating to the prospecting, exploitation and transportation of hydrocarbons in Southeast Europe. To read more about the volume, click here.

The firm has contributed the Greece chapter to the edited volume _Capital Directive in Europe: The Rules on Incorporation and Capital of Limited Liability Companies_, which has just been published by Cambridge University Press. To find out more about the volume, which has been edited Dirk van Gerven, and to view the firm_s chapter, which has been authored by partner Tom Kyriakopoulos, click here

The firm has been ranked as a recommended practice in 10 practice areas by the 2014 edition of The Legal 500: Banking, finance and capital markets, Corporate and M&A, Dispute resolution, EU and competition, Employment, Energy, Insurance, Intellectual property, Projects and privatisation, and Tax. As in previous years, the energy practice of Kelemenis & Co. has retained a Tier 1 status (click here).

Kelemenis has been retained by Granite, a GE wholly-owned affiliate, in establishing its Greek subsidiary and advising the company on employment and tax matters. To date, Granite had been providing services in Greece without a permanent establishment in the country. Granite is a wholly owned affiliate of the General Electric Company and works with GE Power & Water, Oil & Gas, and Energy Management on over 2,000 projects every year. It has a diverse workforce of 6,000 people who are based in over 60 countries, works in over 100 countries every year, and has over 50 offices throughout Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America.

Managing Partner, Yannis Kelemenis, has given an interview to the annual edition of CFO Agenda 2014 on the legal issues and tax aspects of Greek M&A and the role a law firm can play in the successful completion of the process. To read the interview, click here.

The firm has been invited to participate as an invited speaker at the 1st Global Capital Forum entitled “Greece: a solid investment destination”, which will take place at the King George Palace Hotel, in Athens, on 3-4 February 2014. Besides Kelemenis & Co., leading investment firms like KKR, HighBridge Capital Management, FirTree, Taconic Cap & Sankaty Advisors are among the confirmed speakers. The 1st Global Capital Forum will provide a platform for international and regional investors, policy makers and market stakeholders to meet and discuss the investing opportunities in Greece (click here to see the conference programme). Focusing on current critical trends and future opportunities in Greece, this premier event will also focus on the current economic climate, provide data on market strategies for growth, update on the most recent tax and legal reforms and identify the markets and sectors that present the most compelling investment thesis.

Kelemenis & Co. has been instructed by AGC Equity Partners, the majority partner in Jermyn Street Real Estate Fund IV LP, the successful bidder for the Astir Vouliagmenis hotel. The instruction relates to some of AGC’s corporate and contractual matters arising from the successful bid of Jermyn Street Fund for the acquisition of Astir Vouliagmenis. Click here to read more about the bid of Greece’s foremost hotel complex .

The firm’s Tax Group has authored a new article, this time in the October issue of the Greek law journal Epixeirisi. The article focuses on the new pre-trial petition against decisions imposing tax following the introduction of Statute 4174/2013. To view the relevant article of partner Tom Kyriakopoulos, head of the firm’s Tax & Employment Group, click here.

The Greek Power Market Operator (LAGIE) has retained Kelemenis & Co. to review the existing legal framework that governs its operation and to assist LAGIE with proposals of legislative and regulatory nature towards the convergence of LAGIE’s operation with the European model. The assignment is of high relevance to the changes that are forthcoming in Europe under the anticipated coupling project for power markets in South-Eastern Europe in 2014. In this context, LAGIE has already proposed measures which aim to eliminate distortions in the existing regulatory framework and do so in line with the EU Target Model. The firm’s contribution is part of the process of the gradual transformation of LAGIE towards a power exchange and will also deal with assessing and streamlining the credit risks assumed by LAGIE and with the liquidity problems currently facing the Greek electricity market and the cash liquidity of LAGIE.

Dr. Yannis Kelemenis has been appointed as member of the 8-member policy advisory board of the CUPESSE project. The CUPESSE project, which is coordinated by the Universities of Heidelberg and Mannheim, is dedicated to the comparative analysis of youth unemployment in Europe and brings together universities, research institutes and various individual experts from most European counties in a 4-year large-scale project funded by the EU (http://cupesse.eu/). The Policy Advisory Board, in which Dr. Kelemenis serves as a board member (http://cupesse.eu/consortium/policy-advisory-board/), includes international representatives from real world spheres that deal with the topics of the CUPESSE project.

Kelemenis & Co. has hired two senior associates, Ms. Alexia Xeniti and Mr. Theodore Thomopoulos, to strengthen, respectively, its regulated markets and its litigation groups. Alexia Xeniti, who has joined the Regulated Markets Group, brings with her 10 years of experience in associate and senior associate positions with commercial law firms in Athens. Her expertise ranges from commercial and corporate law (particularly commercial contracts, agency, and corporate governance) to competition and state aid to public procurement. In the past few years, she has been heavily involved in energy law and regulation and has acquired an in depth knowledge of the Greek and EU regulatory framework including licensing procedures of conventional / RES projects and clients’ representation before civil and administrative courts and the Greek regulator (RAE). At Kelemenis & Co. she has got already involved in two regulatory projects with institutional clients (i.e. the Greek Power Market Operator and EBRD) and is expected to be heavily involved in the firm’s project finance engagements and in assignments dealing with regulatory, transactional and shareholding aspects of renewable energy projects. Theodore Thomopoulos has joined the Litigation & Arbitration Group. Before joining the firm, Theodore worked as an associate with three commercial law firms over a period of 7 years. He focuses on litigation, primarily of a commercial nature, and in the course of the past few years he has acted for a number of well-known corporate clients from the construction, pharmaceutical, insurance, technology and retail sectors, and for several major Greek banks. At Kelemenis & Co., Theodore has already started handling large-volume commercial claims for corporate clients from the insurance, food & beverage, and car-dealing sectors.

The latest newsletter of the firm is now available online (Click here) together with the tax alert on the recent overhaul of Greek tax legislation (Click here). The printed edition of the newsletter with the tax alert will be circulated to those on the firm’s recipients’ list towards the end of October.

Greek law publisher Nomiki Bibliothiki and Kelemenis & Co. are to launch the Kelemenis & Co. Series in Business Law in early October. The series aims to provide handbooks and monographs for businesses, legal practitioners and financial advisors and do so in plain language and with a pragmatic approach. It is an initiative that has evolved beyond the firm’s numerous publications, in Greek and in English, over the past few years, which have communicated some of the firm’s accumulated knowledge and experience of the practice of business law to a wider readership. The driving force behind launching this new business law series, a novelty for the Greek legal setting, is the need for publications in core areas of business law, which are written in a straightforward and practical manner for both lawyers and non-lawyers without compromising the key qualities expected of a legal publication. The volumes of the series will be authored by lawyers working with Kelemenis & Co., the target being that two to three volumes will be published annually in areas that fall within the firm’s core expertise. To this end, three additional titles are already in the pipeline, dealing with tax, employment, and energy regulation respectively. The choice of language (i.e. Greek or English) of each volume will primarily depend on the gap that the particular publication aims to bridge and on the target readership. The approach that the series aims to serve is demonstrated by the first volume of the series. Authored by managing partner Yannis Kelemenis, “Greek Business Law: A Handbook for Businesses and Legal Practitioners” will be published in early October. It adopts a broad definition for business law. Rather than being closely linked to commercial law (to which, of course, it is), business law has been treated as a wider body of law that encompasses all key areas of law that impact the operation of a business. In this context, branches of law such as employment, tax, public procurement, data protection or commercial litigation, which would not normally find their way into typical business/commercial law books, have been integrated into the definition of business law to reflect their strong relevance to the way a business operates. The book has been written in English to reach out to a readership beyond the Greek business and legal community and to facilitate the access of businesses, both domestic and foreign, and of foreign legal practitioners and financial advisors to Greek business law.

Kelemenis & Co. has been retained to act for China Development Bank (CDB) in a €94-million project finance facility in the Greek energy sector. In its capacity as the Greek legal counsel to the transaction, the firm has been instructed to deal, amongst other things, with legal due diligence matters of all Greek companies involved in the transaction, with the deal structure and with all finance and security agreements relating to the Greek end of the credit facility. CDB is one of the major financial institutions in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). It is state-owned, falling under the direct jurisdiction of the State Council, and as one of three policy banks of the PRC, it is primarily responsible for raising funding for large infrastructure projects. It is the second-biggest bond issuer in China after the Ministry of Finance. At the end of 2010, the bank had US$687.8 billion in loans, more than twice as much as the World Bank.

Kelemenis & Co. has successfully represented a former regional car dealer of Fiat’s distribution network in Greece in an indemnity claim relating to clientele indemnity. The claim arose in the late 1990s when Fiat terminated its distributorship with the car dealer and denied the payment of indemnity for clientele on grounds that the Athens Court of Appeal has now ruled as ill-founded, awarding the car dealer the full amount of the requested indemnity.

Geox, the Italian shoe and clothing manufacturer, has retained the firm to advise on insolvency matters arising from customers in Greece. The advice ranges from insolvency and bankruptcy issues to debt collection and cross-border enforcement of claims.

Partner Tom Kyriakopoulos has contributed the Greek chapter on tax litigation to an international edited volume published by Thomson Reuters. The volume, which covers nearly 30 jurisdictions, forms part of the content on WestLaw and will also be circulated through a Thomson Reuters APP – Global Business Law. Each country chapter provides the reader with key information regarding both the civil and criminal dimensions of tax litigation in a specific country/jurisdiction.

The firm has been retained by Warwick Capital Partners, a London-based hedge fund manager specialising in European distressed and special situation credit investments, to advise the fund on the legal and tax framework for cross-border acquisitions in Greece. The fund, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority, explores asset and share acquisitions prospects in Greece. To this end, the firm has been asked to advise, among others, on the available tax structures for the implementation of such investments, the options available under Greek incentives legislation, the rules governing the lease of commercial property as well as asset and share acquisitions, and the historical liability and employment-related matters arising from such acquisitions.

The firm has been retained by Warwick Capital Partners, a London-based hedge fund manager specialising in European distressed and special situation credit investments, to advise the fund on the legal and tax framework for cross-border acquisitions in Greece. The fund, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority, explores asset and share acquisitions prospects in Greece. To this end, the firm has been asked to advise, among others, on the available tax structures for the implementation of such investments, the options available under Greek incentives legislation, the rules governing the lease of commercial property as well as asset and share acquisitions, and the historical liability and employment-related matters arising from such acquisitions.

The firm has entered through AON into a new professional indemnity insurance policy with AIG, which accommodates for ring-fenced insurance cover that some international clients often prefer due to their internal procedures. In the past, the firm was insured with the Catlin Syndicate at Lloyd’s.

Kelemenis & Co. is organizing an informal networking event (lunch) during this year’s MIPIM at the Miramar Plage, Cannes. The event is organized together with Multilaw, the independent network of law firms in 150 commercial centres throughout the world, of which Kelemenis & Co. is the member firm representing Greece. Representatives from Kelemenis & Co will be present together with colleagues from Multilaw firms around the world. The event has been scheduled for 12 March 2012, between noon and 2.00 pm at Miramar Plage, 65 La Croisette, 06400 Cannes. To reserve a place, please send your confirmation to Ms. Geraki to the e-mail address geraki@kelemenis.com by 5 March 2013. Attending the event will be free of any charge. MIPIM is the world’s property market for more than 20 years (see http://www.mipim.com/). It brings together the most influential players from all international property sectors, offering unrivalled access to the greatest number of development projects and sources of capital worldwide. This year it is expected that more than 20,000 international participants will attend MIPIM including 4,100 investors and 1,600 CEOs.

Kelemenis & Co. has been selected by the lead arranger and bondholder agent of a 95-million bond loan, to advise the syndicate of seven Greek banks in connection with the security interests related to the refinancing of the bank debt of a Greek group of companies. The firm has been retained to draft the relevant share pledge agreements, to complete all relevant formalities and to advise on the validity and enforceability of the security interests.

The Winter 2013 Newsletter of the firm has now been printed and circulated. Click here to gain access to its electronic version.

Kelemenis has been retained by Colliers International to advise on matters relating to its Greek subsidiary. Colliers is a leader in global real estate with over 12,300 employees in 522 offices worldwide at more than 60 countries.

Partner Yannis Kelemenis was among the speakers at the conference organized by the Greek Society on Energy Law on 12.12.2012. The conference focused on current issues of the Greek energy market and was divided in two sessions, the first of which was chaired by Professor Theodore Fortsakis and the second by Professor Nikolas Farantouris. Speakers included Professors Marinos, Athanasiou and Iliopoulos, the Chairman of the Greek TSO, Dr. Koutzoukos, the Vice-president of the Greek regulator, Dr. Aslanoglou, and the legal counsels of the Greek Public Power Corporation, Mr. Economou and Dr. Synodinos. Dr. Kelemenis� presentation focused on the ways that the energy market can be protected from the systemic risk of the insolvency of the market participants.

As part of its pro bono work, Kelemenis & Co. has been advising Greek charity “The Smile of the Child” on setting up the appropriate legal vehicles for its fund-raising activities in North America. The task has been jointly undertaken with top American law firm Duane Morris. The Smile of the Child is a non�profit volunteering organization whose main objective is dealing with the daily problems children encounter. The organization�s main concern is defending children’s rights not just on paper but practically as well, providing services to children on a 24 hour, 7 days a week, 365 days a year basis, and working for children�s physical, mental and intellectual stability and spiritual strength. Over the last several years the organization has won a truly stellar reputation.

The chapter on the Commercial Laws of Greece authored by the firm�s managing partner, Dr. Yannis Kelemenis, has been released by the Digest of the Commercial Laws of the World edited by Patrick Tinsley and Stephan Kinsella (click here on Release 2012-3). The Digest of the Commercial laws of the World is published by law publisher Oceana of the Oxford University Press. It is written by lawyers who practice in the nearly 60 jurisdictions covered by this title and is a practitioner-oriented compilation of expert commentary and practical guidance. Each country’s chapter is structured around specific points of comparison, covering such topics as incorporation regulations, foreign trade, contract law, agency, bills of exchange, real estate, liens, intellectual property, competition laws, civil litigation, bankruptcy, and arbitration. In addition to the nation-specific chapters, the authors provide text of, and commentary on, major transnational agreements regulating international commerce. The book also examines overarching international frameworks established by the European Union, World Bank, United Nations, and other supranational bodies. To find out more about the book, click here The outline of Dr. Kelemenis� 130-page chapter on the commercial laws of Greece is structured as follows: General System of Law Merchants and Non-Merchants Foreign Trade and Foreign Direct Investment Contracts Assignments Real Estate Security rights Agency and Commercial Representation Commercial Papers Intellectual Property Unfair Competition E-commerce Insurance Business Organisations Mergers & Acquisitions (Public) Spin-offs and Transfer of Business Sectors and Aggregates of Assets and Liabilities Tax Incentives Applicable to Corporate Restructurings Bankruptcy and Creditor�s Rights Open-ended Mutual Funds and Closed-ended Funds Venture Capital Civil Actions and Procedures Recognition of Foreign Judgments Arbitration Enforcement Proceedings

The firm has been instructed by Stryker to advise its Swiss subsidiary on an exclusive distribution agreement governed by Greek law. Kelemenis & Co is advising the client on the application of Greek law and in particular on the harmonization of Council Directive 86/653/EEC of 18 December 1986 on the coordination of the laws of the Member States relating to self-employed commercial agents and its application to exclusive distributors. Stryker is one of the world’s leading medical technology companies. It currently has over 20,000 employees worldwide and revenues exceeding USD 7.5 billion.

Name partner Yannis Kelemenis was invited to speak in the 5th annual photovoltaic conference organised by the leading German firm Beiten Burkhardt in Munich on 13.9.2012. Dr. Kelemenis focused on both the current outlook of the Greek solar market as well as its recent legislative and regulatory developments. This was the fourth time that Dr. Kelemenis speaks at the conference that attracts a considerable number of primarily German investors and practitioners.

The firm advised GE Helathcare on Greek public procurement legislation and application during the course of recent public tendering procedures of Greek state hospitals for the procurement of healthcare equipment. Work included both regulatory advice as well as pre-trial and litigation support.

The firm has been advising Metaxa, the leading Greek brand, on the application of EU secondary legislation (as transposed into Greek law) regarding labelling and bottling. The exercise is a key part of Metaxa�s plans to revise bottle labels and marketing initiatives. Besides regulatory advice, work also includes communications and liaising with supervisory authorities.

The firm has been providing on-going legal, regulatory and tax consulting assistance as well as compliance services to Shelman, the largest wood producer in Greece with production and commercial activities in Greece, Europe, the USA and Africa. In its efforts to restructure and streamline its various production and commercial entities, Shelman is in the process of examining different alternatives. Kelemenis & Co has been providing Shelman with tax advisory and compliance services with respect to identifying the most tax efficient manner in undertaking these restructuring plans.

Kelemenis & Co. has been instructed by the Southern Coal Corporation, a major American holding company of various coal assets and various mining operations, to act for the enforcement of a USD 39 million judgment regarding the sale of metallurgical coal to a Greek company. The US judgment was passed by the federal court of Louisiana.

Partners Yannis Kelemenis and Konstantina Soultati and associate Eirini Sartzetaki have contributed a chapter on the “Civil Liability of the Transmission System Operators of the Power and Natural Gas Grids and of the Market Operator of the electricity market” to the edited volume “Energy: Law, Economy & Politics”. The volume, which has been published by Nomiki Bibliothiki a few days ago (click here for more details), has been edited by Dr. Nikos Farantouris, Professor at the University of Piraeus (Jean Monnet Chair), and arose from the interdisciplinary lecture series on Energy Law and Policy 2011-2012 under the auspices of Jean Monnet European Chair and the International European Affairs Center of the International European Studies Department of the University of Piraeus.

Kelemenis & Co. has acted for the sale of 85% of international travel company Youtravel.com to FTI Touristik, one of the largest German operators. In so doing, it has dealt with both contractual and corporate matters ranging from the drafting of the shareholder�s agreement to the amendment of the Articles of Association of the parent companies and of the UK and Greek subsidiaries all the way to tax advisory and compliance services.

Kelemenis & Co. has acted for the demerger of the Youtravel and the Aquis Hotels & Resorts groups. Following the decision of the two shareholders of the two groups (John Kent and Sheikh Tahnoon Bin Saeed Bin Shakboot al Nehayan of the Abu Dhabi Royal Family) to split their participations, the firm has been engaged in the negotiations, drafted the demerger agreement and its ancillary documentation and advised on the various shares transfers within the group (in Greece, the UK and Cyprus) through to completion. Work included tax advisory and compliance services that focused on the direct and indirect tax issues and on tax procedures in Greece and abroad for the completion of the demerger.

Kelemenis & Co. hosted the annual European Regional Conference of Multilaw, the leading global legal network in which the firm represents Greece, in the Westin Athens Astir Palace from 23 to 27 May. The conference attracted nearly 100 delegates, one of the highest turnouts in Multilaw�s history, and focused on both business development issues and the Eurozone crisis. As part of its social programme, the conference made a �7,000 donation to the “Smile of the Child”, a non-profit voluntary organization that has gained a stellar reputation in Greece in recent years (http://www.multilaw.com/index.cfm?p=141&id=200) .

Kelemenis & Co. has been instructed to advise Arch Insurance Europe on regulatory and contractual matters arising from policies underwritten through the Arch Lloyd�s Syndicate 2012. Arch Insurance Europe is part of Arch Capital Group Ltd. (Arch Capital), a Bermuda-based company with over $5 billion in capital and several subsidiaries that provide a full range of property and casualty insurance and reinsurance products with a focus on specialty lines of business.

Following its heavy involvement in the recent legislative overhaul of the Greek energy sector as advisor to the Government, Kelemenis & Co. has been engaged by the Greek Power Transmission System Operator (ADMIE), a full subsidiary of the Greek Public Power Corporation operating under the 3rd EU Energy Legislative Package, to act as outside counsel. The engagement covers a wide range of regulatory and tax matters (including the amendment of the grid code and its alignment with the Greek income and VAT codes and the Code of Books and Records) as well as commercial disputes involving civil and criminal claims against power suppliers/traders. Litigation relates primarily to claims against Energa and Hellas Power, the second and third largest power suppliers in the country, which recently defaulted with debts estimated at about �250,000,000.

Legal 500 2012 has named Kelemenis & Co. a top tier firm in Energy, a traditional area of strength for Kelemenis & Co. In all, the firm has been recognized for the quality of its legal services in nine (9) practice areas by the 2012 edition of Legal 500, namely Corporate and M&A, Dispute resolution, Energy, EU and competition, Employment, Intellectual property, Projects and privatization, Tax, Banking, finance and capital markets.

The Baring Private Equity Fund, one of the largest and most established independent private equity firms in Asia with $5 billion under management, has instructed Kelemenis & Co. to advise the Fund on regulatory, commercial and tax issues arising from the contemplated acquisition of equity and debt from Greek public companies listed on the Athens Exchange. Baring specializes in investments in the region of $100m into companies requiring capital for expansion, recapitalization or acquisitions. It currently has over 30 portfolio companies with 78,000 employees and revenues of $5.8 billion in 2011. The Fund was previously part of Dutch Insurer ING.

Kelemenis & Co. has completed all procedures for the renewal of several domestic (Greek) trademarks of Absolut Vodka. The firm has been the exclusive legal counsel for the Greek trademarks of the brand over the past few years.

Following a rigorous preparation that lasted for more than a year, TUV Nord has certified Kelemenis & Co. for applying an ISO 9001:2008 management system in rendering “advisory, compliance and litigation services in business law for corporate clients”. Click here to view the certificate.

The Winter 2012 Newsletter of the firm has been printed. Click here to gain access to its electronic version.

Partner Tom Kyriakopoulos has been elected to the chairmanship of Multilaw’s International Business Development Board. His election follows his election to the 12-member Executive Council of Multilaw during the October 2012 Annual Meeting held in London. Multilaw is a leading global law network consisting of more than 70 law firms worldwide and over 6,000 lawyers in over 150 commercial centres. Kelemenis & Co. is the Greece member of Multilaw.

Kelemenis & Co. has been engaged by Cargill�s, the world�s largest food company, to advise on several issues relating to the regulatory and tax treatment of derivatives in Greece. Founded in 1865, Cargill is now the largest privately held corporation in the United States. Its major business is trading, purchasing and distributing grain and other agricultural commodities. Cargill also operates a large financial services arm, which manages financial risks in the commodity markets. In 2009 Cargill�s revenues reached USD 117 billion. It employs over 130,000 employees in 66 countries.

Kelemenis & Co. has been engaged by the Greek subsidiary of General Mills, the owner of the Haagen Dazs brand, in relation to the model Haagen Dazs franchise contract to be used in Greece. General Mills is an American Fortune 500 corporation with a brand portfolio of more than 100 leading brands and numerous category leaders around the world. It was founded in 1856 and now employs more than 33,000 people. In 2010 its global revenue reached 15 billion USD.

Kelemenis & Co. has advised Adecco on aspects of Greek contract law arising from contractual wordings that Adecco has put under review. Adecco is one of the largest human resources companies in the world employing 700,000 temporary workers and contractors, and having 32,000 employees and 5,500 offices in 60 countries.

The firm has been instructed to prepare a legal opinion for England’s High Court on the Greek law of motor accident liability and particularly the notion of contributory negligence and related case law. The opinion has been instructed by UK law firm Thomson, Snell & Passmore and relates to a claim against a Greek insurance company.

The Summer 2011 Newsletter of the firm has been published. Click here to gain access to its electronic version.

Kelemenis & Co. has been engaged by law firm Frost Brown Todd to deal with Greek aspects of a multi-million claim involving the sale of coal from an American corporation to a Greek company. Frost Brown Todd, which is a member of Multilaw, the global law association of which Kelemenis & Co. is the Greece member, is one of the largest law firms based in the Midwestern United States. It presently has over 450 attorneys working in nine offices throughout Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, and West Virginia.

Kelemenis & Co. has completed its engagement as legal advisor to the Greek Ministry of Energy for drafting the new energy law. The new law, statute 4001/2011, repeals the electricity and natural gas laws (statutes 2773/1999 and 3428/2005) and sets de novo, in line with the 3rd EU Energy Legislation Package, the power and gas legislation, together with extensive provisions for the Greek energy regulator and for consumer protection. Following a public tender, Kelemenis & Co. had been chosen to act as the Ministry�s advisor in the autumn of 2010.

Creditinfo has instrcuted Kelemenis & Co. to act for the sale of its Greek business to Hellastat. Creditinfo is a leading international service provider for credit information and risk management solutions in eleven European countries.

The firm shall advise EgyptERA, the Egyptian electricity regulator, on aspects of its reorganization and the phasing of the power market towards liberalization. Dr. Kelemenis has been chosen as the Key Licensing and Legal Expert in the 7-member international project team. Dr. Kelemenis shall be primarily involved in drafting the supply code and in designing internal transparency procedures relating to licensing. The project is funded by the European Union.

The firm has been instructed by international insurance company DAS, a leading provider of legal protection insurance services, to handle a claim against a Greek marina. The claim involves the total loss of a luxury sailing yacht following a fire explosion on board.

Kelemenis & Co. has been instructed by Turbomach, a member of the Caterpillar group, to advise on the regulatory treatment in Greece of the installation, licensing and maintenance of data transmitting antennas. The exercise is part of an international project undertaken on behalf of Caterpillar by the FLI network, of which Kelemenis & Co. is the Greece member, to advise on regulatory restrictions and licensing procedures for the installation of data transmitting antennas in several counties around the world. Caterpillar is the world�s largest manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines and industrial gas turbines. With more than US$70 billion in assets, it was ranked number one in its industry and number 44 overall in the 2009 Fortune 500. In 2010 its revenue amounted to 43 billion USD and its employees to 133,000

The University of Konstanz has engaged Kelemenis & Co. to report on Greek legislation and case law for a wide range of areas, namely euthanasia and assisted suicide, abortion/termination of pregnancy, pornography, prostitution, sexual conduct, same-sex partnership, drugs and addictive substances, gun control/possession (i.e. firearms, bladed weapons) and gambling. Reporting covers both legislation and critical case law for the period from 1950 to 2010 and is intended to outline Greece�s moral policies over this period. The exercise is part of a Europe-wide project on moral policies.

Kelemenis & Co. has been instructed by the Israel Airport Authorities to handle the Authority�s claim against Olympic Airlines, which is now under liquidation following the disposal of most of its assets to Olympic Air.

DEPA, the Greek Public Gas Corporation, has retained Kelemenis & Co. to as act its ongoing legal regulatory advisor. DEPA is the leading natural gas undertaking in Greece with a market share in the region of 75%.

The Spring 2011 Newsletter of the firm has been published. Click here to gain access to its electronic version.

Kelemenis & Co has been instructed to act for the local branch of the Finnish high technology group Nokia. The firm�s work will be on going and will focus on ensuring the branch�s compliance with all corporate obligations and reporting requirements applicable under Greek law.

Kelemenis & Co has represented one of the investors who participated in the �70 million share capital increase of NEL Lines, one of the major Greek shipping companies listed on the Athens Stock Exchange. Kelemenis & Co participated in the negotiations and drafting of the shareholders� agreement and all related contractual documentation concerning the share capital increase and the entrance of new investors into the company.

Kelemenis & Co joined forces with auditing company Baker Tilly, one of the major auditing firms in Greece and abroad, to complete the documentation file on transfer pricing on behalf of a well known international group. Kelemenis & Co�s work included the review of the agreements as well as the preparation of transfer pricing documentation .

Kelemenis & Co has provided legal services for the setting up of the Athens offices of GraftonSpengler Fox. GraftonSpengler Fox Hellas is part of the GraftonSpengler Fox Group that specialises in the provision of human resources services in sixteen countries Worldwide.

Kelemenis & Co. has acted for Thomas Cook on the enforcement of a foreign judgment on a Greek hotel company following the issuance of a European payment order against the Greek debtor. Thomas Cook is listed on the London�s Stock Exchange and is the second largest travel company in the UK, with over 800 stores and approximately 19,000 employees.

Managing partner Yannis Kelemenis participated as the key speaker at the electricity market session of the Annual Conference on the Greek energy market organised by the Institute of Energy for South East Europe (IENE) � the largest conference of its kind in Greece. His presentation opened the session on the developments in the Greek electricity market and referred to the approximation of the recent European legislation relating to the electricity and natural gas markets (3rd Energy Package) with Greek Law. Dr Kelemenis focused on the requirements of the EU regulations and directives of the 3rd Energy Package, the dilemmas placed by the current national legislation and the proposed solutions for the transposition of community law into Greek legislation.

Kelemenis & Co has advised CA Technologies on legal and tax matters concerning its commercial activities in Greece. CA Technologies is one of the largest IT companies in the world with a work force of more than 14,000 employees and a turnover of over $ 4 billion in 2010.

Kelemenis & Co has advised Expedia on health & safety regulations (for instance, on active and passive fire protection) governing the operation of Greek hotels and on the conditions of issuance of the relevant certificates for both existing hotels and hotels under construction. Expedia is the largest online travel company in the world with an annual turnover of over $ 3 trillion. It is listed on the NASDAQ and is included in S&P 500 and NASDAQ-100.

Following an open tender, the Greek Ministry for Energy and the Environment has awarded the consortium of Kelemenis & Co. (consortium leader) and LDK the legal support to the Ministry for the drafting of the Greek primary and secondary legislation for the approximation of the Greek electricity and natural gas legislation with the EU 3rd Energy Package. The project will include amongst others: (a) the review of the existing legal framework for the Greek energy market. (b) the review of the new of the requirements of the 3rd Energy Package. (c) the assessment of the likely impacts of the new provisions on the Greek energy market. (d) proposals regarding the approximation of the Greek legal framework to the requirements and demands of the 3rd Energy Package. (e) the drafting of all legislative acts that are necessary for transposing of the 3rd Energy Package into Greek law. (f) the assessment of the impact of the new market design on PPP and PFI initiatives. (g) the overall support to the Ministry for the implementation of the project The project will last 8 months and will end upon the submission of the legislative bills to the Greek Parliament.

Kelemenis & Co. was instructed by Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung, a leading German foundation in the fields of socio-political development and economic and social promotion, to advise the foundation on Greek law requirements regarding the conclusion and termination of employment contracts. The foundation dates back to 1925, has its seat in Bonn and Berlin, and maintains its own representations in over 90 countries worldwide.

For the 3rd year in row, Dr. Kelemenis was one of the key speakers at the one-day conference organized by German law firm Beiten Burkhardt in Munich on the institutional framework and investment climate of the key countries in the development of photovoltaic projects. Dr. Kelemenis’ presentation included regulatory issues (following the introduction of statute 3851/2010) as well as the tax and corporate structuring of investment opportunities and acquisitions in the Greek photovoltaic market. Representatives from more than 150 companies from the German energy and finance markets attended the conference.

The firm has advised Clifford Chance on employment issues arising from the cross border restructuring of operations of a major multi-national company, the effects and implementation of EU Directive 94/45, procedures and costs related to termination of employment agreements, regulatory aspects of terminating temporary employees and free lance consultants, the harmonization of Greek law with the protection of employees rights pursuant to EU legislation (European Union Acquired Rights Directive).

Kelemenis & Co. has been instructed to undertake the registration of national, EU and international trademarks of Protergia S.A., the leading energy company which was previously known as Endesa Hellas and has now been rebranded to Protergia following the acquisition of 51% of its share capital by the Mytileneos Group.

Kelemenis & Co participated in Mutlilaw�s 20th annual conference that took place in Madrid from 20 to 22 October. The conference focused on the global financial crisis. Partner Tom Kyriakopoulos contributed as one of the conference�s key speakers and dealt with the Greek sovereign debt crisis and the bailout. During the conference, it was decided that the Multilaw European Regional Conference for 2012 will take place in Athens and will be hosted by Kelemenis & Co.

Kelemenis & Co. has been engaged to advise insurance company AON on the extent to which the limitation of liability of insurance intermediaries is permissible under Greek legislation and case law. The advice included the conditions under which such limitation may be valid and enforceable.

Kelemenis & Co. has been engaged to act as the Greek counsel to Sunpower, a world leader in the construction of solar panels, on all its commercial, corporate and regulatory legal matters in Greece. Sunpower is listed at NASDAQ and is active in Greece also through Sunray which it recently acquired globally.

The firm advised on the Greek market component of the sale of the Johnson & Johnson international business. The advisory work included review of agreements, perusal of corporate issues and methods of structuring the new Greek business unit.

Kelemenis & Co. was invited to organise a training seminar of managers of the Marfin Laiki Group on UCITS (Units of collective investments in transferrable securities). The day seminar was held on 14.6.2010 and was organised in cooperation with KPMG Cyprus and the Parthenon Trust. Kelemenis & Co handled issues relating to both the regulation and taxation of collective investment schemes under Greek law.

Kelemenis & Co. has acted for the buyers of the majority shareholding held by Barclays Ventures in the UK Company Stelow Ltd and its subsidiaries, Youtravel.com S.A and Youtravel.com Ltd. Youtravel.com is an internet travel company with an annual turnover of more than €130 million. Kelemenis & Co. acted for both the shares purchase transaction as well as the corporate governance restructuring of the company.

Managing Partner, Dr. Yannis Kelemenis, spoke at the 4th South–East Europe Energy Dialogue organised in Thessaloniki by the Institute of Energy for Southeast Europe (IENE). Dr Kelemenis’ presentation was part of the session on the “Integration and Competition in the SE European Electricity Market � and dealt with the emergence of the retail power market in Greece, its regulatory and competition challenges, and the appropriate steps towards the opening up of the market.

Dr. Yiannis Kelemenis has updated the Greece chapter on Greek energy legislation for the 23rd release of the leading looseleaf publication “Energy Law & Regulation” published by Sweet & Maxwell. Mr Kelemenis, who is the author of the Greece chapter since 2003, updates the chapter regularly. The new release is expected to be ready in mid 2010. Mr Kelemenis has also updated the chapter for Greece regarding the regulatory framework on the exploitation, transfer, health and safety, taxation, and competition of oil and oil derivatives for the international edited volume “Getting the Deal Through”. Mr Tom Kyriakopoulos has completed the chapter for Greece for the edited volume to be published by the Cambridge University Press in 2010 on the implementation and harmonization to the Directive 2005/56/EC on cross-border mergers. Ms Athanassia Papantoniou and Ms Ioanna Lazaridou, partners at Kelemenis & Co, have updated their article on the recognition and execution of foreign judgments and orders by the Greek courts. The updated article will be published in the 2nd edition of the Oxford University Press on the recognition of foreign judgments. Their article was first published in 2008 and it has now been complemented by recent case law. Ms Ioanna Lazaridou has also updated the chapter on Greek public procurement, which she has been writing since 2007 for the “Getting the Deal Trough” series. This article refers to the national and European legal framework of public procurement, the legal capacity and procedure of concluding public contracts, as well as to the resolution of disputes arising from public contracts. Ms Mania Tsoumita has completed the drafting of the Greece chapter for the 2nd edition of the edited volume “Media, Advertising and Entertainment law through the World”, which will be published by the international legal network MULTILAW, member of which is Kelemenis & Co. The chapter refers to and analyses the key legislation in the areas of Media, Advertising and Intellectual Property with detailed references to recent Greek case law. The first edition of the book was released in April 2008 in two volumes and contains 32 chapters. Ms Konstantina Soultati has published the chapter on insolvency and restructuring proceedings in Greece for the PLC Cross-Border Restructuring and Insolvency Handbook 2010/2011. In her chapter Ms Soultati has dealt with the types of security envisaged in Greek property and contract law. She also deals with the procedures of bankruptcy, the bankruptcy reconciliation process and the plan of reorganization of enterprises according to the Greek Bankruptcy Code. Ms Margarita Matsi has finished the chapter on Greek labor law for the Multilaw Employer Labor Handbook. In her chapter Ms Matsi presents the key provisions of Greek labor law, including matters such as the employment of foreign nationals in Greek companies, the hiring and firing of employees, their wages, benefits and rights during the course and upon the termination of their employment contracts. Ms Iro Stamataki has published the chapter on arbitration proceedings in Greece for the 2nd volume of the PLC Cross-Border Dispute Resolution Handbook 2010/2011. Ms Stamataki has focused on the advantages and disadvantages of arbitration vis a vis ordinary judicial proceedings, the procedure of appointing the arbitral tribunal, the procedural impediments to the appointment of certain arbitrators, the conditions of challenging arbitration awards and the arbitration costs.

Kelemenis & Co acts for a foreign ship-owning company, of Norwegian and Maltese interests, in the acquisition of an LPG carrier in Greece. The vessel is to be acquired following enforcement proceedings that initially involved a public auction and now the free disposal of the vessel by the creditors. The process started with the arrest of the vessel and its seizure at the port of Pireaus in early 2010 due to to debts towards the crew and Greek and foreign creditors.

Partner Tom Kyriakopoulos was one of the key speakers in the 9th Conference of ERRA, which took place from 18 to 20 of April 2010 in Budapest. The subject of Mr Kyriakopoulos’ speech was the Coordinating Auction Office of Southeast Europe, which will be established by the Energy Community in implementing the decision of its Ministerial Council. Kelemenis & Co was the law firm that was awarded and executed the international legal study on the the establishment of this office.

Kelemenis & Co has advised Setterwalls, one of the leading law firms in Sweden, on taxation issues arising from the sale of an Airbus aircraft, now based in Greece, to Scandinavian Airlines.

In early April 2010 Kelemenis & Co was engaged by Israeli investors to represent them in the implementation of their projects for the modernization and expansion of hotels and the construction of luxury holiday residences in Corfu and in the islands of the North Aegean.

Kelemenis & Co has joined the annual meeting of MIPIM on investments in real estate which was held in Cannes from 16 to19 March and held together with other member firms of Multilaw, the international legal network of which Kelemenis & Co. is a member, a presentation on the real estate market in a number of European countries, including Greece. MIPIM is the leading organiser of commercial and professional exhibitions in the world.

Kelemenis & Co has been engaged by the Greek Brewery of Atalanti, the formerly exclusive distributor of the products of leading international brewer InBev in Greece, to act for the Greek company following the termination of its long-standing distribution arrangements with InBev. The Greek company’s claims amount to �4,100,000 and include both indemnity and restoration of damages.

Chevron has instructed Kelemenis & Co. to deal with all legal (i.e. corporate/commercial, employment, litigation and regulatory) matters of its lubricants business in Greece. Chevron, one of the largest energy companies in the world with a turnover of about 275 billion U.S. dollars in 2008 and more than 67,000 employees worldwide, has been active in the Greek market following its acquisition of Texaco.

In cooperation with CITCO, an international service company with offices in 37 countries, Kelemenis & Co has undertaken, as of 1.1.2010, the legal support of the Greek subsidiary of Logitech on all issues relating to the subsidiary’s corporate governance and compliance. Logitech is among the most well-known companies in the field of digital technology whose activity began from the manufacturing of computer parts to expand, in recent years, to various electronic and digital applications. At an international level Logitech employs more than 7,000 employees and retains a distribution network in more than 100 countries.

Kelemenis & Co has been instructed to represent Eric Cauchi, one of the major shipping agents in Piraeus, against Japanese company Kawasaki and its UK subsidiary K-Line. The claims, which amount to €4,000,000, arise from the shipping agency contract that was signed between the two companies in 2000 and was terminated in 2009. Shipping agency Eric Cauchi is one of the oldest and most widely recognised shipping agencies in Piraeus, its origins dating back to 1910.

Kelemenis & Co has been instructed by McCain, one of the leading producers of frozen food in the world, to handle legal matters arising from the company’s distribution network in Greece. As in nearly all countries in which it does business, McCain enjoys the largest market share in the relevant business sectors. Entry of McCain into the Greek market dates back to 1994. Today McCain is a key supplier to numerous restaurant chains and supermarkets in the country.

In early November, Dr. Yiannis Kelemenis acted as session chair in the annual International Summit on Commercial Law that was organized by the Centre for International Legal Studies in Egypt. Dr. Kelemenis coordinated the European Law session, which was one of the eight sessions of the conference that attracted lawyers from 21 countries around the world. The Centre for International Legal Studies is based in the city of Salzburg in Austria and is one of the best known international legal institutes in the field of commercial law.

Kelemenis & Co. has been instructed to act as legal counsel to insurance company General Union S.A during its liquidation that commenced following the revocation of its license by the Private Insurance Supervisory Committee on 21.9.2009. General Union’s license was revoked together with those of Aspis Pronoia, General Trust and G.I Skourtis.

Kelemenis & Co has acted on behalf of the shareholders of Blue Aegean Energy in the acquisition of 50% of the company’s shares by an undertaking associated with Aegean Oil. The firm was involved in the drafting of the relevant contracts and the execution of the agreement which includes the implementation of the agreement before the various supervisory and regulatory authorities. Blue Aegean Energy, which will be renamed Aegean Power, has been active in the Greek energy market for the past two years. During its short existence, the company has risen to become one of the key players in the supply and trade of electricity in Greece and has built a high profile clientele.

On 1.10.2009, partners Yannis Kelemenis and Tom Kyriakopoulos spoke at the one-day conference organized by German law firm Beiten Burkhardt in Munich on the institutional framework and investment climate of the key countries in the development of photovoltaic projects. Their presentation included regulatory issues as well as the tax and corporate structuring of investment opportunities and acquisitions in the Greek photovoltaic market. Representatives from more than 150 companies from the energy and finance markets attended the conference. The conference’s speakers came from major European law firms, such as Garrigues from Spain, Gide Loyrette from France, Wolf Theiss from Austria and, of course, Beiten Burkhardt from Germany.

Kelemenis & Co. has been instructed to file a petition before the Greek Conseil d’ Etat requesting the annulment of the decision of the Minister of Development which determined the calculation of the annual cost of public service obligations in the Greek electricity sector. At the same time, a petition requesting the suspension of execution of the relevant decisions has been filed. The two petitions focus on the compliance of Greek legislation with community law and whether the Ministerial Decision setting out the consideration payable to the Greek Public Power Corporation for the provision of public service obligations meets the requirements of community and Greek law.

In late August 2009, Kelemenis & Co. was instructed by Salam International, one of the major construction companies in the Middle East, to represent one of its subsidiaries in a claim against the Greek subsidiary of a well-known high-tech company. The dispute arose from the execution of contracts of works which were concluded in connection with the Pan Asiatic Games of 2006 held in Doha. The dispute is subject to arbitration proceedings in Greece and the claim amounts to €1m.

On 14.07.2009, Yannis Kelemenis, the managing partner of Kelemenis & Co. was one of the key speakers at the conference organized by the Greek-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry at King George Hotel, in Athens. The conference’s subject was on the “Politics for Renewable Energy Sources – Special Programme for Photovoltaic Projects on building roofs”. Dr. Kelemenis’ speech focused on saving energy in the residential sector in light of current policies for the energy performance of buildings and the available financing mechanisms.

Kelemenis & Co. has been instructed by Sonae Sierra to advise its Greek subsidiaries on labour law matters. Sonae Sierra is one of the best known international shopping centre specialists operating in a number of countries in Europe and South America. At present it owns 52 shopping malls around the world, manages more than 2,100,000 sq.m., and has various projects in different phases of development in several countries including Greece. Kelemenis & Co.’s first engagement related to a legal opinion on the regulation of service contracts under Greek law and covered regulatory, tax and social security matters. Following this first engagement Sonae Sierra and Kelemenis & Co. have agreed that Kelemenis & Co. will provide legal advice on labor law matters to Sonae Sierra’s subsidiaries in Greece on a permanent basis.

Kelemenis & Co. has been instructed to advise international pharmaceutical company Solvay on a series of issues relating to the conclusion, performance and termination of employment and service contracts under Greek law. To this end, Kelemenis & Co. has delivered a report on all key provisions of Greek employment law. Solvay is an international chemical and pharmaceutical company employing more than 28,000 people in 50 countries. The exercise has been part of an international project of labour law review in 30 countries, which Solvay has assigned to First Law International, an international legal network of independent law firms in which Kelemenis & Co. represents Greece.

In early June, Kelemenis and Co. was engaged by Statkraft, Europe’s largest renewable energy company, to advise the company on a permanent basis. ?he legal services to be rendered include advice on both regulatory as well as commercial issues arising from Statkraft’s activities in Greece.

Within the reorganization of its Greek subsidiaries, international insurance company AON has instructed Kelemenis & Co. to advise AON on corporate and labor matters relating to the restructuring of its local subsidiaries.

The consortium in which Kelemenis & Co. participates and also includes the Italian undertakings CESI SpA and D’ Appolonia SpA and the Croatian energy institution Hrvoje Pozar, was chosen as one of the six consortia that will participate in the open tender of the European Commission for the provision of technical support for the implementation of the Energy Community Treaty in Montenegro. At this initial stage of expression of interest for participation in the tender, 17 consortia participated. The budget of the project amounts to €1,500,000.

On 12 May, partner Tom Kyriakopoulos presented to the 14th Athens Forum the results of the study undertaken by the firm on behalf of the Energy Community Secretariat regarding the incorporation, operation and participation of the Coordinated Auction Office in South Eastern Europe. The incorporation of the Office was decided by the Council of Ministers of the Energy Community on 27.06.2008. Thirteen territories are expected to participate in the Office and, in particular, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, FYROM, Montenegro, Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia, Italy and the region of Kosovo. Kelemenis & Co. was awarded the contract for the above study following an international tender. Is should be noted that the Athens Forum is the forum in which all the stakeholders of the electricity market in the European Union and the countries of Southeastern Europe participate under the auspices of the Energy Community.

On the 5th of May 2009, Yannis Kelemenis, the managing partner of Kelemenis & Co., participated as a guest speaker in the 8th Annual Conference “Bridges” on the subject “Regional Developments – Local Developments and Regional Cohesion as an answer to the International Crisis”. The conference took place in Aigli, Zappeio, and the panel in which Yannis Kelemenis participated included Ms Anna Diamantopoulou, MP for PASOK, Mr. Kyriakos Mitsotakis, MP for Nea Dimokratia and Mr. Meletis Meletopoulos, director of the journal “Nea Politiki”. The discussion was coordinated by Mr. Fokion Zaimis.

In April 2009, Endesa Hellas instructed Kelemenis & Co. to give a legal opinion on issues relating to a thermal power plant of a combined circle of a capacity of 430 ?W, which is under construction in the region of Agios Nikolaos. Viotia. Endesa Hellas is the joint venture of Endesa Europa, one of the largest electricity producers in Europe, and the Mytilineos Group. The legal opinion was delivered in late April 2009.

Kelemenis & Co. commenced arbitration proceedings in relation to the sale of a plot of land in Elounda, Crete, for the price of €14,000,000. The dispute for which Kelemenis & Co. commenced proceedings arose from the execution of a notarial preliminary agreement between the clients of Kelemenis & Co. and a ship-owning fund that had agreed to purchase the plot of land. The arbitration is expected to be concluded by September 2009.

Between February and April 2009, Kelemenis & Co. acted for Champion Europe SpA, the international athletic apparel manufacturer, for the termination of its contract of exclusive distribution in Bulgaria, the incorporation of a subsidiary, and the acquisition, following a due diligence, of a local entity involved in the sale of athletic apparel. With this restructuring, Champion will operate in Bulgaria by itself and not through third-party distribution agreements. Kelemenis & Co. has been acting for Champion in Greece and some of the countries of Southeastern Europe since 2004.

Kelemenis & Co. was instructed by the University of Teeside to advise on the new law on private colleges in Greece (statute 3696/2008), which came into force in August 2008. The issues to be addressed related primarily to the cooperation of the UK University with a local educational entity under the regime of the new provisions. In May 2008, Kelemenis & Co. had performed a due diligence on the regulatory and corporate regime under which the academic program of the University was at the time offered in Greece .

In April 2009, as part of the restructuring of its legal services in 31 countries (Outside Counsel Policy Project), General Electric pre-selected Kelemenis & Co. as one of the three law firms with which it will cooperate in Greece on a permanent basis. The practice areas in which Kelemenis & Co. will provide services are litigation, commercial and corporate law and regulatory matters. General Electric is the 10th largest corporation in the world with a turnover that exceeded 19 billion Euros in 2008.

Between March and April 2009, Kelemenis & Co. acted for the incorporation of the Greek subsidiary of Spanish company SICE. SICE belongs to the ACS group, on the of the largest construction groups in the world, with a turnover which reached the amount of approximately 18 billion Euros in 2008. In addition to the incorporation of the company, the firm’s services included tax advice and advice on corporate law and corporate governance.

Kelemenis & Co. has continued acting for the hotel company Aquis Hotels & Resorts in a series of acquisitions of hotel complexes. In March 2009 the firm acted for the acquisition of two complexes in Chersonisos, Heracleon, Crete, namely the hotels “Silva Beach” and “Bella Beach” of a capacity of 317 and 163 beds respectively. Kelemenis & Co. undertook the due diligence of the companies which owned the hotels, drafted the SPAs and participated actively in the negotiations, including those for the conclusion of a debenture loan with a Greek bank.

In March 2009 UK law firm Reynolds Porter Chamberlain requested Kelemenis & Co. to give its legal opinion on the recognition and enforcement of a UK judgment, according to which the Greek state should pay a compensation amounting to €2,800,000 plus court and legal expenses in the region of approximately €5,000,000. The decision was issued by the High Court and became irrevocable at the end of January 2009.

In March 2009 Kelemenis & Co. achieved the acquittal of the defendants in a criminal case for the issue of a bounced check of a substantial amount. Although Greek law provides that the offense of the issue of bounced checks is punishable only if it is willful, Greek courts rarely exonerate issuers of bounced checks and, in most cases, treat their criminal responsibility as an objective matter. The acquittal of the clients of Kelemenis & Co. was another episode relating to the sudden cease of operations of the Greek branch of the University of La Verne in September 2004. The clients of Kelemenis & Co. were employees of the local entity (Somateo) and had the authority to sign on behalf of the Somateo. Their acquittal follows decision no 7262/2008 of the Multi-member Court of First Instance of Athens, which accepted the action of “La Verne College”, represented by Kelemenis & Co., against the University of La Verne. With said decision the corporate veil of the Somateo was lifted and it was acknowledged that the franchising contracts between the University and the local legal entity were fictitious and aimed at construing the alleged independence of the two entities in order for the University to avoid the financial liabilities of its branch.

In March 2009 Kelemenis & Co. was instructed to provide on a permanent basis the local legal support to the two subsidiaries of Western Union, the largest company in the world performing money transfers. The legal support focuses on corporate issues including corporate governance and compliance issues of the two Greek subsidiaries.

In January 2009 Blue Aegean Energy instructed Kelemenis & Co. to draft its model contract to be used for the supply of electricity to electricity users of medium and low voltage. The drafting of the model contract was concluded in April. Blue Aegean Energy is one of the main alternative suppliers of electricity and the only one which is of entire Greek interests. The Greek electricity market was fully liberalised on 01.07.2007, yet the Greek Public Power Corporation (???), the former monopoly, remains the sole electricity suppliers for the vast majority of Greek consumers. Of late, Blue Aegean Energy has been acting as an electricity supplier to various high-profile, large-scale consumers.

Kelemenis & Co. acted as legal counsel to sailing team “Greek Challenge” during the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series which took place in New Zealand during the first fortnight of February 2009. Greek Challenge, the Greek sailing team for the Louis Vuitton Series and the America’s Cup, participated in a competition of this caliber for the first time in Greek sailing history. The competition in New Zealand was an event of the America’s Cup type and the results for the Greek team were highly encouraging given its debut. Greek Challenge has set its eyes on a successful participation in the America’s Cup, the biggest event in international sailing and the oldest living institution in sports; its introduction for the first time in 1851 came 45 years before the commencement of the modern Olympics. The event attracts the very best from international sailing thanks to its long history and its long-established prestige as the most important trophy in international sailing. Kelemenis & Co. has acted as legal counsel to Greek Challenge since 2007.

Kelemenis & Co. entered into a cooperation agreement with First Law International (http://www.first-law.com/) to provide services to clients of this service provider in Greece. FLI is an international provider of legal services in most parts of the world such as UK, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain, Finland, Ukraine, Moscow, Cyprus, Greece, Turkey and Israel. FLI also has correspondent law firms in Scandinavia, Ireland, Austria, Poland, Serbia-Montenegro and Southeastern Europe as well as Morocco. In Asia Pacific, FLI has members in China, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia/Indonesia and correspondent firms in India.

In February 2009, Kelemenis & Co. achieved the granting of an order by the Conseil d’ Etat for the suspension of a public tender of the Regulatory Authority for Energy due to infringement of competition rules. The infringement consisted in that the terms and prerequisites of the tender notice directly indicated enterprises and imposed unreasonable conditions in relation to the object of the project, thus obstructing competition and making it impossible for most suppliers to participate in the tender.

Kelemenis & Co. acted for its client, Aquis Hotels & Resorts, in the acquisition of the hotel complex Aqua Marine Resort of Kos whose capacity amounts to 596 beds. Kelemenis & Co. performed the legal due diligence of the company that was acquired and owns the hotel, and drafted all contractual and ancillary documentation. At the same time, the lawyers of the firm participated actively in the negotiations between the parties. The acquisition was completed in January 2009.

Statute 3408/2005 introduced a rebate on pharmaceutical products that pharmaceutical companies must pay to social security organizations. ??e pharmaceutical industry has fiercely objected the methodology on the basis of which the rebate is being calculated, given that, amongst others, Ministerial Decision F. 42000/14734/532/22-7-2008, which was issued in execution of statute 3408/2005, has gone beyond the boundaries of its legal authorization and contradicts constitutional provisions and the principle of proportionality. In December 2008, Kelemenis & Co. was instructed by KLEVA Pharmaceuticals, one of the major pharmaceutical manufacturers in Greece, to contest before the competent administrative courts the relevant deeds of the Ministry of Employment whereby KLEVA Pharmaceuticals was requested to pay the rebate. It has therefore been requested that these deeds be annulled by the Court because they lack the appropriate legal reasoning and violate fundamental constitutional rules.

Kelemenis & Co. has been instructed by the management team of UK company Stelow Ltd and its subsidiaries Youtravel.com S.A and Youtravel.com Ltd. to advice on the restructuring of the holding company in which Barclays Ventures holds the majority of shares. Youtravel.com is a company that renders its services in the travel industry through the internet and whose turnover exceeded €100 million during its third year of operations. With the current restructuring, top executives of Youtravel.com acquired shares in the holding company. Work included reviewing the new Articles of Association of Stelow Ltd, the new Investment Agreement and the services and employment agreements of the executives, as well as participating actively in the negotiations of the parties.

In December 2008, Kelemenis & Co. was instructed by the French company Veolia Environment, the largest environmental company in the world with approximately 320,000 employees and a turnover exceeding €32.5 billion in 2007, to advice on the regulatory regime of the Greek energy market. The advice of Kelemenis & Co. covered various issues of the licensing procedure for the granting of licenses for the production of electricity from renewable energy sources (focusing primarily on wind energy), including the applicable timetables, administrative procedures and requirements throughout the licensing procedure.

Kelemenis & Co. is the winner of the international tender organized by the Energy Community Secretariat in Vienna for the provision of legal services towards the establishment and operation of the so-called Coordinated Auction Office in South Eastern Europe. The firm was appointed by the Secretariat to work with the national stakeholders in order to produce a “Study on the identification of legal obstacles to the establishment and operation of and the participation in a Coordinated Auction Office in South Eastern Europe”. In particular, according to the Ministerial Council Decision of the Energy Community no. 2008/02, the contracting parties of the ENERGY COMMUNITY Treaty (i.e. the European Union on the one hand and Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, FYROM, Montenegro, Serbia and the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo on the other) have taken the decision to implement Commission Decision dated 09.12.2006 amending the Annex to Regulation No. 1228/2003. According to this Annex, a so-called eighth (8th) Region has been created, which encompasses the territories of thirteen (13) parties, namely Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, FYROM, Montenegro, Serbia, the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo, Greece, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia and Italy. The creation of this 8th region has been preceded by intensive and ongoing efforts to establish a Coordinated Auction Office (CAO), which is designed to become the central institution to implement the common coordinated congestion management method and the procedure for the allocation of capacity to the market as required by the Congestion Management Guidelines. The successful establishment of the CAO presupposes that all possible legal and administrative barriers which may arise between the parties of the 8th region will have to be firstly identified by Kelemenis & Co. The firm is expected to propose solutions to overcoming the legal barriers that will be identified in all thirteen jurisdictions. The project will commence on 1.12.2008 and is expected to be completed in May 2009.

With decision no. 7262/2008, the Athens Multi-member Court of First Instance accepted the lawsuit of “La Verne College”, the Greek vehicle through which the American University of La Verne offered its academic programmes in Greece, against the University of La Verne. The College, represented by Kelemenis & Co., requested that its corporate veil be lifted and that it be recognized by the Court that the College was only the “intermediary” legal entity that was solely managed by the University and was used by the latter fraudulently to avoid the liabilities of its establishment in Greece. The Court found that not only the corporate veil of the College, which on paper was run by employees of the branch appointed by the University (such as the secretary of the director of the program and the caretaker of the college premises) should be lifted, but also that the franchising contracts entered into by the University and the College were entirely fraudulent and were construed by the University to establish the alleged independence between the two entities in order for the University of La Verne to circumvent the liabilities of its branch. Thus, more than four years after the sudden discontinuance of the operations of the University of La Verne in Greece, the legal relationship between the two legal entities was clarified and the allegation of the University of La Verne that it had nothing to do with the local entity and that the local entity was only a client of the University collapsed. This judgment will form the basis for the continuation of the legal fight aiming at making the University pay a debt of about €7,000,000 which accumulated from the discontinuance of its operations in Greece in September 2004. It must be noted that Kelemenis & Co. has also represented the local entity in bringing criminal charges against all management and the Board of Trustees of the University of La Verne. Indeed, with decision no. 3116/2007 nine representatives of the University of La Verne have been indicted for felony fraud.

Kelemenis & Co. has been invited to speak at a conference organized by German law firm Beiten Burkhardt in Munich. The conference focuses on photovoltaic projects in the emerging markets for solar energy, such as France, Italy, Spain, Germany, China, India, Greece, Czech Republic and Bulgaria. Kelemenis & Co. shall deliver the presentation on the Greek market and its current developments. Some of the leading law firms of Europe shall make the presentations of the markets on which the conference will concentrate, such as Gide Loyrette of France, Garrigues of Spain, Agnoli Bernardi e Associati of Italy, Wolf Theiss of Austria, and the conference organizer, Beiten Burkhardt of Germany. Click below to find out more about the conference and to view Kelemenis & Co. presentation. Firm’s presentation on the Greek market Details of the conference

Kelemenis & Co. has completed its move to the firm’s new premises at 5 Tsakalof Street. Relocation was made necessary following the firm’s rapid growth and its need both for more office space and for premises that would be tailor-made to its particular needs. The new premises are more spacious, occupy two floors and offer state-of-the-art administrative, IT, electronic, storage and conferencing facilities. Have a look at the photo gallery below to see parts of the firm’s new office facilities.

The firm acts for Aquis Hotels & Resorts (http://www.aquisresorts.com) in the latter’s successive acquisitions of 3-star, 4-star and 5-star hotels and resorts in Corfu, Crete and Kos. Aquis is a new hotel chain that is set to develop upmarket hotels in eastern Mediterranean resorts. Heads of UK travel companies are among its board members and include chairman David Howells, currently executive chairman of luxury operator Western & Oriental; youtravel.com chief executive John Kent; and Amathus UK managing director Andreas Vasiliou. Aquis Hotels and Resorts has already acquired five properties and is set to increase its portfolio substantially in the next few months. The company is backed by international funds and capital investments, and is set to develop properties not only in Greece but also in Cyprus, Turkey and Egypt.

The University of Konstanz has assigned Kelemenis & Co. the compilation of Greek social security legislation for the CONSENSUS project. CONSENSUS is a large scale EU-funded project implemented by six universities (i.e. the University of Konstanz, the Free University of Berlin, the University of East Anglia, the University of Aarhus, the Institut Barcelona d’ Estudis Internacionals, and the European University Institute). The project aims to understand and improve sustainable development (http://www.fp7-consensus.eu).

Kelemenis & Co. has been today instructed by the Carrefour Group, the largest retailer in Europe and the second largest in the world, to advise the Group on Greek corporate employment matters. The advice relates to regulatory matters and contractual arrangements with senior management executives of the Group’s operations in Greece.

The firm has today been retained by American law firm Salans to advise on aspects of Greek law relating to the IPO of a shipping company with interests in various countries including Greece at the New York Stock Exchange.

UBS has instructed Kelemenis & Co. to advise the bank on the implementation of stock lending agreements in Greek securities. The firm shall review for UBS all regulatory and indirect tax issues involved in the implementation of such agreements. The agreements are directed to EU hedge funds and banks.

Law firm Kelemenis & Co. in cooperation with Lykourezos Law Offices are organising a one-day International Energy Conference under the title: “Energy without Frontiers: Market Liberalisation and the Challenges for Regulation, Competition and the Security of Supply” Grande Bretagne Hotel, 22 May 2008 Opening time 9:00 The conference will focus on the current prospects of full market liberalisation and on the conditions that are necessary for further developing competition and attracting private investments. The conference will also deal with the current developments in the Greek and regional energy markets which, after persistent failures to open up to competition over the past few years, show signs of prompting substantial investment activity. The Former German Chancellor Mr. Gerhard Schröder and the Greek Minister of Development Mr. Christos Folias will address the keynote speeches of the Conference. SPEAKERS (in alphabetical order) 1. Fabrizio Barbaso, Deputy Director General for Energy, Directorate General for Energy and Transport, European Commission – Brussels 2. Dr. Panagiotis Chaviaropoulos, Director of Renewable Energy Sources Division, CRES (Centre for Renewable Energy Sources) 3. Professor Michael Caramanis, Chairman of RAE (Regulatory Authority for Energy) 4. Manthos Kallios, Director, Corporate Strategy & Business Development, PPC Renewables SA 5. Dr. Yannis Kelemenis, The Energy Community of South East Europe 6. Dr. Evangelos Lekatsas, Chairman of Board of Directors of HTSO (Hellenic Transmission System Operator) 7. Rafael Miranda, President of EURELECTRIC (Union of the European Electricity Industry) 8. Raphael Moissis, President of NESC (National Energy Strategic Council) 9. Konstantinos Mousouroulis, Secretary General of Ministry of Development 10. George Peristeris, CEO of TERNA SA 11. Dr. Martha Roggenkamp, Professor of Energy Law at the University of Groningen 12. Mathieu Savaris, ES Executive Commercial Counsel GE Energy * Click on the speaker’s name to view the presentation Speaker’s Curriculum Vitae Conference Programme Participation Form

Dr. Yannis Kelemenis, the Managing Partner of Kelemenis & Co., has been assigned the authoring of the Greece commercial law chapter for the Digest of Commercial Laws of the Oxford University Press under the Oceana series. The Digest of Commercial Laws of the World is a practitioner-oriented compilation of expert commercial law commentary written by lawyers who practice in more than 50 jurisdictions. Each country’s chapter is consistently structured around 22 points of comparison — from foreign trade to real estate to competition and antitrust laws. In addition, sample forms and original articles are included, as are the full text versions of important international treaties, agreements, and rules of international organizations that govern cross-border commercial transactions.

Kelemenis & Co. has been instructed to advise the University of Teesside on the regulatory regime of higher education in Greece and particularly the operation of private universities in the country. It has also been instructed to undertake a legal due diligence of the local entity with which the university cooperates in delivering its degree programmes. The delivery of higher education in Greece by private universities remains a troubled area due to the existing constitutional barriers and heated political disagreements. By and large, local institutions offering higher education programmes as well as foreign universities offering degree programmes in Greece either on their own or through local partners operate in a regulatory vacuum.

Kelemenis & Co has been engaged to advise Solutia sa/nv on regulatory employment matters including post-merger employment arrangements and secondment agreements. Solutia sa/nv, the formerly chemical arm of Monsanto, is an international chemical company with about 5,500 employees worldwide and an annual revenue of about $4 billion in 2007. It operates in Greece through a local branch known as Solutia Europe.

Following a rigorous selection process that lasted nearly a year, the firm has been selected as the Greece member of Multilaw (www.multilaw.com), a leading global law network consisting of more than 65 law firms worldwide and over 6,000 lawyers in over 150 commercial centres. Multilaw member firms are chosen on the basis of the highest standards of quality and ethics so as to make sure that they best serve the needs of the typical international business client. Being part of the Multilaw network ensures an instant global reach for our clients who require multi-jurisdictional legal advice.

Kelemenis & Co. has been retained by the V&S Group, one of world’s leading producers and distributors of wines and spirits including ABSOLUT VODKA, to represent the company in Greece in connection with all its intellectual property matters. The firm shall also advise the Group on other legal matters on an ad hoc basis and has already been instructed to advise on distributorship arrangements under Greek law, including the extent to which the indemnity and damages provided for commercial agents under directive 86/653/EEC are applicable to a Greek distribution agreement. The V&S Group employees more than 2,100 employees and in 2007 attained sales amounting to 1.5 billion euros. Its best known product, ABSOLUT VODKA, is the fourth largest international premium spirits brand in the world.

Following a tendering procedure, the Greek Centre for Renewable Energy Sources (CRES) has awarded Kelemenis & Co. a contract for legal services regarding the development and implementation in Greece of energy performance contracts (EPC) through third party financing and the involvement of energy saving companies. The project will focus on the following areas and objectives:

1. The review of the current legal framework and of the financing mechanisms related to the auctioning, implementation and monitoring of energy efficiency services in buildings of both the private and public sector through third party financing.
2. The updating of draft laws and of earlier recommendations on the subject taking into consideration both national and community legislation.
3. The review of tax-related matters which the energy saving companies face in the course of their business.
4. The review of current models of contracting and related procedures in the European Union and beyond.
5. The identification of options for adjusting and fine-tuning the national legal and institutional framework to international best practice.
6. Proposals regarding the integration into national legislation of EPC financing mechanisms for both public and private sector projects.

The rapid growth of Kelemenis & Co. has made its current premises in Kolonaki Square no longer adequate for accommodating the firm’s growing staff and activities. The firm has thus decided to acquire larger premises in Tsakalof Street, only a couple of blocks away from the location of its current offices. The new premises are more spacious, occupy two floors and offer state-of-the-art administrative, IT, electronic, storage and conferencing facilities. Moving to the new offices will start in late December and will take place in a phased manner to avoid any disruption to the firm’s activities. It is expected to be completed by February 2008. The new offices are situated on the 3rd and the 4th floor at 5 Tsakalof Street, 106 73 Athens.

Kelemenis & Co. has been awarded a contract by the World Bank to assist the Government of Moldova and its Ministry of Industry and Infrastructure in reviewing the legal and regulatory framework governing its energy sector. The project’s objective is to identify all requirements for the harmonization of Moldova’s energy sector with the EU Internal Energy Market and the Energy Community Treaty (ECT). In doing so, Kelemenis & Co. shall prepare an Action Plan for the Legal and Regulatory Harmonization of Moldova’s Energy Sector with the EU, including specific requirements for legal and regulatory changes which may be needed to ensure compliance of Moldova’s gas and electricity markets with ECT and UCTE requirements. It is envisaged that this Action Plan will act as an implementation roadmap towards legal approximation in the Moldovan energy sector. Kelemenis & Co. will build upon the earlier work it undertook in the country with a similar scope in late 2006. The assignment is to be implemented using the Japanese Grant funds administered by the World Bank.

The firm has been retained by Osaka Gas, the second largest natural gas undertaking of Japan, to act as its legal counsel in connection with its investment interests in Greece. Interests primarily involve equity participations in renewable energy sources projects.

The firm is very pleased to welcome Tom Kyriakopoulos as head of its tax practice. Tom, a Greek-Canadian born in Montreal, is a graduate of the law school of the University of Athens and has undertaken postgraduate studies at the University of Nottingham, where he obtained an MBA, and at the Athens University of Economics and Business, where he concentrated on taxation. He has previously worked at IKRP Rokas & Partners, at Lykourezos Law Offices and at KPMG. Besides his strong background in tax and corporate work, Tom has an in-depth knowledge of the transition economies of Southeast Europe, in which he has spent a good part of his working life (e.g. Romania, Bosnia, FYR Macedonia) on several large-scale projects. Tom joins the firm as a partner and his strong background in tax is expected to give a further impetus to the firm’s growing corporate and tax work.

The firm has been retained by Metaxa, a world leader among brandy makers, to advise on violations of Metaxa trademarks and bottle labelling by two competitors. Infringing conduct is said to have resulted in confusion over the origin of the competing beverages and in misrepresentations regarding their nature and quality. Kelemenis & Co. has been called upon to give an opinion on the merits of both cases and to advise on trial preparation. Metaxa is the most famous Greek spirit worldwide and one of the thirty best selling beverages in the world.

The firm has been retained to act as legal counsel to The Greek Challenge, Greece’s venture to host an act of the America’s Cup and build a regatta to compete in this most famous race in international sports. The America’s Cup is the most prestigious regatta and Match Race in the sport of sailing, and the oldest active trophy in international sport, predating the Modern Olympics by 45 years. The sport attracts top sailors and yacht designers because of its long history and prestige as the “Holy Grail” of yachting. Although the most salient aspect of the regatta is its yacht races, it is also a test of boat design, sail design, fundraising, and management skills.

The firm has been invited by PLC, a leading UK provider of legal know-how and transactional and market analysis (http://www.practicallaw.com), to contribute the Greece chapter to the Cross-Border Public M&A Handbook that is to be published in May 2007. The chapter shall iinclude a detailed jurisdictional Q&A analysis and shall be authored by partners Dr. Andreas Bagias and Ms. Ioanna Lazaridou – Elmaloglou.

The firm has also been invited to contribute the Greece chapter to the Handbook on Public Procurement to be published in the Getting the Deal Through Series, the official research partner of the International Bar Association (http://www.gettingthedealthrough.com), in late May 2007. Ms Ioanna Lazaridou-Elmaloglou is the author of the contribution.

In mid-April 2007, another chapter authored by the firm, i.e. the Greece chapter on energy law and regulation prepared by Dr Yannis Kelemenis and Persi Bouna, is to appear in Release 17 of the Sweet & Maxwell loose-leaf publication “Energy Law and Regulation in the EU”.

The firm has been instructed by Dubai-based retailer Kamal Osman Jamjoom Est. (KOJ) to advise on all legal and tax matters relating to the establishment of their business operations in Greece (e.g. setting up of Greek company, trademarks registration, commercial agreements, labour matters, leasehold, tax planning and compliance etc). KOJ owns the Mikyajy make-up and accessories brand, and the Nayomi lingerie brand; as well as holding franchises for The Body Shop in the Western region of Saudi Arabia and Early Learning Centre across the GCC. The group is one of the leading retailers throughout the Middle East region and already has around 260 stores in operation but plans to grow this to over 1,000 stores in the next three years. The Greek business shall first develop around the Mikyajy make-up and accessories brand (http://www.mikyajy.com) and signals the group’s plans to enter the European market.

Kelemenis & Co. has been retained to advise Coca Cola on health and safety at work regulations as set out in Greek law. In particular, the firm has been asked to review rules that apply to beverage manufacturing, distribution and warehouse facilities while taking on board fire control and fire protection measures and all applicable requirements for machine guarding, fall protection, and safety mechanisms and practices. The exercise is part of a wider international exercise undertaken by Coca Cola.

After acting as senior legal expert to the EU Delegation in Kiev on Moldova’s electricity network interconnection requirements at the last quarter of 2006, Dr. Kelemenis has been further contracted to prepare the country’s action plan for the accession to the Energy Community to which Moldova recently made an application to become a full member. The action plan shall include the specific steps to be taken towards legal approximation with the EU energy and environment acquis and towards streamlining the country’s draft national energy strategy. This advisory work is part of the EU-funded project “Support to PCA and WTO Implementation and to EU/Moldova European Neighbourhood Action Plan” implemented by European Profiles S.A.

Kelemenis & Co. has been retained by Royal Canin, an international leader in the pet food industry with an annual turnover of €7.7 billion, to advise the company on the termination of its distribution agreement with its Greek distributor. Kelemenis & Co. has advised, amongst others, on the governing law and court jurisdiction of the distribution agreement, as well as on the extent to which the indemnity and damages provided for commercial agents under directive 86/653/EEC are applicable to the terminated distribution agreement.

Dr Yannis Kelemenis and Ms Persi Bouna have completed the thorough revision of the Greece chapter for the leading Sweet & Maxwell loose-leaf publication “Energy Law and Regulation in the EU”. The chapter has been essentially rewritten to incorporate the recent sweeping changes in the Greek energy legislation introduced by Acts 3423/2005 (On bio-fuels), 3426/2005 (On electricity), 3428/2005 (On natural gas) and 3468/2006 (On renewable energy sources). The new chapter shall be published in spring 2007 under Release 17 of “Energy Law and Regulation in the EU”.

Kelemenis & Co. has successfully represented shareholders in their acquiring the controlling interest of IPCA Cards S.A., a private club offering a wide variety of discount opportunities to its members. The firm has acted during successive share capital increases which altered shareholding composition amidst fierce shareholder disputes, and has fended off claims and motions made by UK company IPCA Ltd., founder and now minority shareholder of IPCA Cards S.A. Dr. Andreas Bagias was the lead lawyer on the matter.

The firm has been selected to draft the secondary legislation for the newly established Greek National Audiovisual Archive. The Archive was set up by law 3444/2006 in early 2006 and is intended to preserve and maintain audiovisual and digital material and to provide access to the historic and cultural legacy of the country. Although supervised by the Minister for Press and Mass Media, the Archive is set to follow private sector rules and practices. Kelemenis & Co. drafts all secondary legislation stipulated in law 3444/2006, i.e. the presidential decree that shall regulate the Archive’s internal organisation and governance rules, as well as ministerial decisions on (a) financial management, (b) personnel, (c) service contracts and (d) works and supplies.

Kelemenis & Co. has acted for UK holding company Stelow Ltd and its Greek subsidiary Youtravel.com S.A. in venture capital deal with Barclays Ventures. Youtravel.com is a start-up travel company that shall render its services on a global basis. In addition to the investment agreement and the numerous ancillary agreements and documents that have come with it, the firm’s lawyers, Dr. Kelemenis and Dr. Bagias, have participated in negotiations, in the company’s legal due diligence and in the transaction’s completion that took place in London. Dr. Kelemenis shall serve on the board of Stelow Ltd as one of its directors. The valuation of Barclays’ participation amounts to 22 million euro.

Kelemenis & Co. has been contracted to act as the legal counsel in a technical assistance project in Moldova funded by the European Commission. The project focuses on the electricity network interconnection and aims to support Moldova’s progressive integration into the regional and eventually the EU energy markets. It is the first energy project in the country to be funded by the EU and is expected to run through to February 2007. In addition to identifying the current technical, institutional, legislative and orrganisational situation of the Moldovan energy market, the project is also intended to indicate the initiatives that the EU needs to take in the short term to deal with Moldova’s growing energy inadequacies and the approximation of the country with the EU acquis.

Kelemenis & Co. has been instructed by a fast-growing renewable energy company to act on its venture capital transaction with a mutual fund and a telecom company, both listed on the Athens Stock Exchange. The renewable energy company is best known for its involvement in the planning and development of wind farms and photovoltaic and small hydro plants. It is also known for being the local partner to a leading European energy company for the development of wind farms and hydro plants in Greece. The transaction is part of the wider investment activity that has been lately under way in the Greek renewable energy sector. Names of the involved parties are to be released after the deal’s completion.

Kelemenis & Co. has been today instructed by an international hotel company to perform legal due diligence on Yaliskari Palace, a 5-star hotel situated in the Yailskari region on the Greek island of Corfu. The firm has also been instructed to draft the take-over agreement of the company owning the hotel. It is estimated that the acquisition cost, part of which will be secured through a debenture loan, and the renovation cost will together exceed the amount of €16,000,000. The transaction is expected to be completed by mid-September.

Kelemenis & Co has drafted the sponsorship agreement between Champion Europe SpA, the sportswear manufacturer, and the Greek Basketball Federation. For the next 4 ½ years, Champion shall be the official and exclusive apparel sponsor and supplier of the Federation and all national teams, including the Men National Basketball Team, the reigning European champion. Dr. Kelemenis and Ms. Lazaridou are our lawyers who have dealt with the contractual texts.

Kelemenis & Co. participates in the consortium led by LDK Consultants, which has been selected by the Greek Regulatory Authority for Energy (RAE) as the consultant for the Organization and Administration of RAE. The project will analyse the current duties and powers of RAE; deal with its current organizational and functional structures; undertake an international benchmarking exercise; prepare a restructuring plan for the reorganization of RAE; and draft the relevant Presidential Decree which will replace Presidential Decree 139/2001. Besides LDK, consulting companies PLANET and NERA participate in the consortium awarded this RAE project. Dr. Kelemenis, our managing partner, will be the key legal expert on the project

The firm has been retained by the Soya Mills Group, a Greece-based leader in the southeast European market of grains, oil seeds and oil seed products, to advise the Group on its first major investment in Bulgaria. The Group is set to form, together with local partners, a joint venture, which shall undertake trading in grains and oil seed products both in Bulgaria and in the wider region of southeast Europe. The joint venture shall also proceed to the construction of warehouse facilities. It is estimated that in its opening stages the investment shall amount to about €5,000,000. The firm has drafted joint venture contracts and the relevant articles of association and has advised the Group in structuring its presence in the local market.

Kelemenis & Co. has been instructed by Clifford Chance, acting on behalf of a beverage company, to advise on Greek law provisions relating to glass packaging. The advice has focused on regulations, standards and limits relating to glass packaging and glass beverage containers; on the extent to which such regulations reflect rules of EU legislation that have been transposed into Greek law; on the components of packaging to which such regulations, standards and limits apply; and on the reporting requirements of those subject to such regulations. Dr. Andreas Bagias and Ms. Ioanna Lazaridou are our lawyers handling this matter.

Kelemenis & Co. has been retained to act in the establishment of the International Baccalaureate Programme at the Ziridis School, a leading private school in the Athens region which can boast a 73-year–old tradition in the field of primary and secondary education. The School has joined forces with a partner experienced in the delivery of the IB Diploma to establish its own International Baccalaureate Programme under the rules of the International Baccalaureate Organisation (IBO). Kelemenis & Co. has advised both on regulatory and compliance matters as well as on the vehicle to undertake the School’s new programme. Dr. Kelemenis and Dr. Bagias have been the Firm’s lawyers on the case.

Following the involvement of name partner Dr. Kelemenis in the EU-funded project on the legal approximation of trade legislation in FYR Macedonia, Tom Kyriakopoulos and Dr. Polykarpos Adamidis, associates of the firm, have been selected to advise on aspects of the legal approximation exercise. Tom Kyriakopoulos has been involved in the competition component of the project, whilst Dr. Adamidis shall be involved in the preparation of secondary legislation on the transparency of financial relationships between public enterprises and state authorities. The latter task builds upon the work of Dr. Kelemenis who earlier this year redrafted the country’s primary law on public undertakings.

Kelemenis & Co. has been instructed by a consortium of foreign investors to act for the acquisition of “Seaside Hotel”, a recently built 4-star hotel situated in the Aghia Pelagia region, in Heraklion, Crete. The firm shall carry out legal due diligence and prepare transactional documentation all the way to closing. Ms. Xanthi Diamanti is the firm’s lead lawyer on this €13m acquisition. Closing has been scheduled for mid-November 2005.

Kelemenis & Co. brought today to a close the transfer of business of “Champion Hellas SA” to the newly established branch of Champion Europe S.p.A, the multinational sportswear manufacturer. The firm oversaw the establishment of the local branch and prepared all necessary documentation and contractual arrangements. The transfer of business is part of an ambitious restructuring and expansion plan of Champion. Athanasia Papantoniou was the firm’s lead lawyer on the case.

Dr Kelemenis has been today elected liquidator of the Greek Investment Fund under the name “Standard AEEX”. The Fund, which has been operating under the supervision of the Greek Capital Markets Committee, currently holds an investment portfolio of some €7.5m and is made up of about 150 investors. Liquidation is expected to run through to the early part of 2006. Kelemenis & Co. has been the legal advisors of the Fund over the past year, whilst name partner Dr Kelemenis served as a member of the Fund’s Board up to his current appointment.

Following the sudden closure of the operations of the Athens campus of the California-based University of LaVerne in September 2004, the firm has been approached by members of the so-called “Association La Verne”, the University’s local branch, to take on all litigation against the University. The University has ceased all operations and departed from Greece overnight denying any association with the so-called Athens campus except in terms of offering a contract-based degree programme to the Association.

The firm has been instructed today to act for most of the cargo owners of F/B ARION, a ro-ro passenger ferry performing services between Piraeus and the Eastern Aegean. The ferry was grounded off Chios island. An LOF (Lloyds’ Open Form), the validity of which is doubted by cargo owners, was signed on the 11.2.2005. The firm shall also represent salved interests in an injunction trial scheduled for early March 2005.

The firm has been retained by consulting company PLANET to advise the Ministry of Economy in FYR Macedonia on the legal approximation of the national legislation on public utilities with the EU acquis. Our advisory services make part of the EAR-funded project “Approximation of Trade Legislation II”. Dr Kelemenis, the firm’s managing partner, is the Key Expert on “Public Utilities, Public Enterprises and State Aid”. Our objective is the redrafting of the country’s primary and secondary legislation on economic activities of general economic interest, public services obligations, and transparency. To this end, all necessary steps to transpose all relevant EU directives into national law have to be taken. Dr Kelemenis had again advised the Ministry of Economy in 2004, when he acted as the Senior Legal Expert to the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) of FYR Macedonia. At the time, Dr. Kelemenis drafted secondary legislation for all energy sub-sectors; recommended amendments to primary legislation; and drafted model licences and authorizations for all energy functions and activities.

The firm has been instructed by a Greek investment fund to prepare all contractual documentation and carry out all reporting and notification requirements for the merger with an investment fund listed at the Athens Stock Exchange. The merger is envisaged to be completed by the end of April 2005 and is expected to create a fund, the portfolio of which shall amount to about €16m.

The firm has been named as the contributor of the Greek Chapter to the Sweet & Maxwell loose-leaf publication of “Energy Law and Regulation in the EU”. Dr Kelemenis shall remain the lead author of the chapter.

The firm has been instructed to advise on the take-over by a consortium of investors of the majority shareholding of the listed at the Athens Stock Exchange “Dynamiki Zoi”. The company, which has enjoyed an impressive rate of growth over the past few years, including a highly successful IPO in 2002, has been troubled in the past few months by poor financial results. The firm has been instructed to lead negotiations, prepare all required documentation and acquisition arrangements and structure a number of equity option agreements.

The firm has today enjoyed the latest successful defense in the series of trails opened against the owners of a 57-metre mega yacht that has been refitted in a Piraeus shipyard. The firm has fended off all claims that have come before the first-instance court of Piraeus. The claims amounted in total to €550.000.