CMS Cameron McKenna’s allied firm in Serbia Strommer Hasche Sigle has been appointed as main adviser on the Government’s first wave of privatisations.
The first privatisation will be of three cement factories, essential to the reconstruction of Serbia’s damaged infrastructure and future development.
The mandate should lead to the CMS network advising on a number of other major privatisations in the war-torn country, which now also needs to restructure its energy and transport industries.
The Belgrade-based CMS Strommer Hasche Sigle is a joint venture of the CMS network’s Austrian member Strommer Reich-Rohrwig Karasek Hainz and the German member Hasche Sigle Eschenlohr Peltzer Schaefer.
Dick Taylor, chairman of the CMS group, welcomed the appointment from the Serbian Ministry of Economy and Privatisation.
“Central and Eastern Europe is one of the core markets for expansion and development,” he said.
Following the end of Slobodan Milosevic’s reign in Belgrade, international interest in investment has grown among investors and international law firms.
US firm Altheimer & Gray, which has a strong East Europe practice, has already stated its intention to open an office in Belgrade by the end of the year.
While the City’s Clyde & Co has already formed an association with a pair of commercial lawyers in Serbia to gain access to the new market.
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