Once again, Schoenherr has advised on a billion-euro transaction in the CEE region: An international Schoenherr team assisted UNIQA on the acquisition of AXA subsidiaries in the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia for a purchase price of around EUR 1bln.

"We are proud to have successfully advised on this huge transaction using our international industry know-how to help UNIQA to become one of the biggest insurance groups in CEE", Schoenherr partner Alexander Popp said.

Through this transaction, UNIQA Insurance Group, one of the leading insurance groups in its core markets of Austria and CEE, has acquired life and non-life insurance companies, investment firms, pension funds and service companies from the AXA Group, a world leading insurance and asset management group. UNIQA gains five million customers, 2,100 employees and EUR 800m in premiums across the three countries, which makes UNIQA the fifth-largest insurance group in CEE. The transaction is subject to all necessary regulatory approvals.

Advising on the transaction, Schoenherr acted as lead counsel and covered all involved markets with local teams. The Schoenherr team was led by Alexander Popp (partner, Vienna) who was supported in particular by Gregor Petric (attorney at law, Vienna); Alexander Gruber (associate, Vienna); Paweł Halwa (partner, Warsaw); Krzysztof Pawlak (counsel, Warsaw); Vladimír Čížek (partner, Prague); Jitka Kadlčíková (attorney at law, Prague) and Soňa Hekelová (partner, Bratislava) in m&a, as well as Volker Weiss (partner, Vienna) and Hanno Wollmann (partner, Vienna) in the area of competition and Peter Feyl (partner, Vienna) in regulatory and finance. In addition, further team members from the Schoenherr offices in Vienna, Bratislava, Prague and Warsaw assisted on this transaction.

AXA was represented by Clifford Chance.