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BIO

Ivan Barabáš is a founding partner of FORLEX with more than twenty years experience providing legal services to clients including leading international and Czech corporations, investors and private businesspeople. Ivan Barabáš specializes in mergers & acquisitions, corporate insolvency & restructurings, and also in specific issues within the area of banking & finance. In his long-term legal career, Ivan Barabáš has also advised clients on wealth management, directors’ liability, forensic and legal due diligence, energy law and professional services matters.

In M&A, Ivan Barabáš has participated in many important transactions on the Czech market, particularly in the financial services, energy, manufacturing, automotive, IT and professional services sectors. In corporate insolvency & restructuring, Ivan Barabáš focuses on out-of-court restructuring programs and reorganizations. In banking & finance, Ivan Barabáš has extensive experience with block sale of claims, factoring and other forms of receivable-based financing, financial restructurings and acquisition financing.

Before establishing FORLEX, Ivan Barabáš worked for more than ten years at Havel, Holásek & Partners. Since 2011, he worked for Havel, Holásek & Partners in the position of a co-managing partner responsible for its branch in Ostrava. In 2010, Ivan Barabáš was seconded to the leading Dutch law firm De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Prior to joining Havel, Holásek & Partners, Ivan Barabáš also worked for the Prague branch of the Austrian law firm Wolf Theiss and also for the ČSOB financial group.

SPECIALIZATION

• Mergers & Acquisitions
• Corporate law
• Banking & finance
• Insolvency & Restructuring
• Commercial law
• Private clients

PROFILE TRANSACTIONS AND ADVISORY PROJECTS

• Local legal support to a Brno-based provider of predictive analytics and IT operations automation services in connection with its sale to an international holding company
• Comprehensive advisory services to a group of individuals on the sale of a specialised glass technology company (and its subsidiaries in the US, UK, Germany, China, Slovenia and Croatia) to a multinational strategic investor
• Comprehensive advisory services to a Brno-based client on the sale of selected assets and its project team to a multinational petrochemical group
• Representing a German automotive group in the sale of a project for the construction of a production hall, including partial issues of obtaining an EIA decision and settlement of pre-emption rights in favour of the municipality
• Ongoing advice to a power balance services company in the implementation of their projects involving the commissioning of generation and back-up resources in various locations and involving a range of legal steps, including entering into lease agreements with landowners, lease agreements in relation to generation facilities and aggregation agreements with aggregators of ancillary services
• Comprehensive advice to financial and strategic investors on regular acquisitions of biogas plants and other energy sources in the Czech Republic, including legal review of acquired assets and negotiation of acquisition and financial documentation
• Representing a Czech company in the sale and licensing of intellectual property of the world's leading producer of computer chips
• Comprehensive advice to the sellers on the sale of 100% of book-entry shares in a company providing computer network security services to an US investor
• Legal support to management in the process of selling a company to a private equity fund, including setting up a management incentive program and negotiating a shareholders’ agreement
• Representing owners of various medical facilities on several sales to strategic and financial investors, including advice with respect to applicable regulatory aspects in the healthcare sector
• Advising a leading Austrian financial group on a number of acquisitions in the Czech Republic, including comprehensive legal advice regarding acquisition of a part of a bank’s retail business and acquisition of a home building savings bank operating in the Czech market
• Advising a Czech based advanced solutions supplier in the field of glass melting, conditioning and forming on its acquisition of targets abroad, including legal support to the client’s foreign operations following the acquisition
• Advising foreign investors on purchase of non-performing loan portfolios from the Czech Consolidation Agency and Czech banks, including advice on financing aspects and subsequent NPL servicing of the portfolios
• Advising top executives of leading Czech banks on directors’ liability and corporate governance matters