WOLF THEISS ADVISES ON THE 330 MILLION EUR DEBT RESTRUCTRING OF PIVOVARNA LASKO

Vienna/Ljubljana (OTS) - Pivovarna Lasko, the leading Slovenian
brewery, achieves a major step in its debt restructuring with Wolf
Theiss as their lawyers.

Pivovarna Lasko, the Slovenian brewery and market leader in the
beverages sector, entered into a standstill and restructuring
agreement with as many as 18 banks - among them are NLB, the largest
Slovenian bank, Hypo Alpe Adria Bank, Abanka and others - who
represent EUR 330 million of the beverage Group's debt. On the part
of the beverage group, Pivovarna Lasko, Pivovarna Union and Radenska
signed the agreement with the banks. The restructuring is M&A-driven
and is based on a divestiture of the group's assets - such as, the
group's shares in Mercator, Radenska and Delo - and on the
anticipated entrance of an investor. Negotiating the deal, Wolf
Theiss advised the beverage group on all relevant legal aspects of
the debt restructuring, including not only the conditions of further
lending but also on other contractual commitments, corporate changes
and questions of financial law.

Mr Dusan Zorko, CEO of the Pivovarna Lasko Group, stated: "Signing
the restructuring agreement with all these lenders was a huge and
important step for us. It took more than a year of intense
preparation and negotiations to come to this result that secures the
future of our group. We would not have succeeded in achieving this
outcome without Wolf Theiss, who contributed with their overall
commitment, international experience and local knowledge. They
performed outstandingly."

Markus Bruckmüller, head of the Slovenian practice of WOLF THEISS,
commented: "The agreed solution with the banks not only constitutes
an important step forward for the beverage group, but also sends a
very strong signal to the Slovenian economy, where they and their
banks play a significant role. It was a challenge to align so many
diverse interests. Together, we were able to demonstrate that this
is, indeed, doable even in the present market environment. All people
involved in the deal can be very proud of that achievement. Clearly,
lawyering this kind of financial re-engineering requires both, a
strong local presence in Slovenia as well as international
capabilities like we have."
The core team of Wolf Theiss was comprised of Markus Bruckmüller
(Partner), Nikolaus Paul (Partner) and Klara Miletic (Senior
Associate).

Financial advisor to the beverage group was A.T.Kearney. The
steering committee of the lenders was represented by Schönherr.

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