Schoenherr Romania advised Aquila Part Prod Com on the successful completion of an initial public offering ("IPO") for the sale of some 66.6m new shares, for a total price of approx. EUR 74m.

The funds raised will be used to acquire FMCG/distribution companies, strengthen the company's work capital, invest in digitalisation projects, and develop company brands.

Following the successful completion of the IPO, Aquila Part Prod Com will apply to list its shares on the regulated market of the Bucharest Stock Exchange.

"This is the third major IPO of a private company in Romania this year. We are glad that our capital markets team has advised on two of these three projects," said partner Narcisa Oprea, who leads Schoenherr Romania's capital markets team.

Aquila is the largest FMCG distributor in Romania, with revenues of EUR 362m in 2020. The group serves a network of about 67,000 points of sale, which includes traditional retailers, modern retailers and HoReCa companies. Its main partners include Unilever, Mars, Ferrero, Philips, Essity, Coca-Cola, Lavazza and ETI Romania.

The Schoenherr team advising on this project was led by Narcisa Oprea (partner) and included Veronica Das Alexeev (senior attorney at law) and Silviu Lazăr (attorney at law). They worked closely together with Radu Vasilescu, head of legal at Aquila Part Prod Com, to make the IPO a success.

Schoenherr is a leading full-service law firm in Central and Eastern Europe and South-Eastern Europe, where it operates 15 offices and several country desks. The firm has been active in Romania for 25 years. The Romanian office has a strong capital markets practice, which is ranked by all major international legal directories (Chambers and Partners, Legal500, IFLR1000).