Pittas + Koullouros LLC

The firm: Pittas + Koullouros LLC is an innovative specialised commercial law firm with multidisciplinary expertise and experience, providing high-quality legal services and commercial advice to international and local corporates, financial institutions and professional advisors.

The firm's main practice focuses on corporate, banking and commercial law and all related ancillary areas. Indicatively, its practice focuses on corporate, commercial, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, banking & finance, restructuring & insolvency and ancillary aspects of financial services regulation, real estate, IP and employment law.

The firm's founding partners have more than fifteen years' combined experience working for a global Magic Circle law firm and tapped on their respective experience to create a clear vision for Pittas + Koullouros LLC - to blend business and legal thinking to deliver real advantage to clients. The firm has a strong focus on providing structure to and managing complicated processes, being highly responsive and providing to the point legal advice while keeping an eye on commercial interests at all times. The firm's aim is to provide premium legal support and pragmatic commercial advice with a personal touch. 

Areas of practice
Corporate and commercial: With corporate law being a central pillar to our practice, we advise domestic and international clients across industries on all legal aspects of ordinary corporate transactions including, inter alia, shareholder arrangements, management incentivisation structures, division of responsibilities and authorities and corporate governance. Further, in addition to strategic corporate transactions, such as M&A and joint ventures, our services extend to key one-off transactions such as corporate reorganisations, corporate financings, private to public conversions, listings, redomiciliations and strike-offs and dissolutions of companies. In offering day-to-day support to corporate clients, we also provide a full range of services on commercial contracts including, inter alia, sale and purchase of movable assets and immovable property, cooperation agreements, service level agreements, agency and distributorship agreements, assignment, novation, amendment and restatement agreements, as well as general contract law advice.

M&A and joint ventures: Acquisitions, disposals and joint ventures are central to the strategy of corporations, financial institutions and private equity investors and, consequently, form the backbone of our corporate practice. Our goal is to draw on our experience from high-value cross-border transactions to deliver premium service through an innovative approach and high degree of individualised attention. We have capabilities to support clients in domestic and cross-border transactions, both buy-side and sell-side and through all stages of an M&A transaction, from bidding and legal due diligence, through to negotiations and shareholder arrangements to closing of a transaction and post-closing support and organisation. We also have extensive expertise in joint ventures and consortiums, and can provide start-to-end support, from the heads of terms to the drafting of the joint venture agreement, articles of association and relevant asset or business transfer agreements, as applicable, to preparing all relevant ancillary documents (covering all aspects of the joint venture including funding, supply and distribution, licensing and management).

Banking and finance: With banking and finance law being at the centre of our practice, through our extensive experience in acting for a range of creditors, debtors, underwriters and other stakeholders in high-value, cross-border and challenging transactions, we are well placed to offer a comprehensive range of banking and finance advice and support on all forms of domestic and international private debt, debt capital markets and derivative transactions. Such transactions include investment grade lending, leveraged finance, project finance, asset and real estate finance, trade finance, standalone bond issuances and debt programmes, structured finance, securitisations, liability management, high yield structures, and all local counsel aspects of the over-the-counter and exchange-traded derivatives market and related products.  We also provide advice on banking regulatory and licensing requirements.

Restructuring and insolvency:Through significant real-world experience gained on distressed, high-risk situations, we are well placed to deliver sophisticated restructuring and reorganisation advice and strategies, from rescue planning, disposals and insolvency procedures through to distressed debt trading, debt-to-equity transactions and security enhancement. We are well versed in guiding debtors, creditors, debt investors and insolvency practitioners through restructurings, workouts and insolvency matters and can cover the full spectrum of distressed services, from advising on corporate and financial restructuring transactions to insolvencies and special situations. Our focus is always on providing strategic advice to clients on restructuring businesses with a view to reviewing and navigating through their options and delivering outcomes that achieve the highest possible returns.

Inbound / outbound investments: We can advise and assist on any transactions originating from Cyprus or investments in or through Cyprus and provide legal support at all stages across the investment cycle from deal origination to structure implementation, through to transaction execution, including engaging appropriate tax or other professionals and support with licensing applications to, amongst others, the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission and the Central Bank of Cyprus.

Competition and anti-trust: We advise on control of concentration issues and handle merger notifications to the Commission for the Protection of Competition. We also provide advice on applicable state aid rules, as well as deal with clearance notifications to the Cyprus State Aid Commissioner. We also advise on antitrust issues regarding anticompetitive behaviour, concerted practices and potential abuse of dominance. Our practice can conduct antitrust audits for your organisation and may provide tailor-made compliance training on antitrust and competition law.

Strategic support in other legal areas: We offer advice on all employment, intellectual property and real estate matters connected to our core offering.

English law transaction support: Both founding partners are qualified solicitors of England & Wales and offer comprehensive English law advice within our areas of specialisation. We also have extensive experience and expertise in high-value cross-border transactions governed by English law. We know that transaction processes often require additional legal support, both due to capacity constraints or, within clients, an internal lack of expertise.  We are well placed to provide law firms with senior associate-level legal support, as well as transaction management and coordination services. We are also a cost-efficient solution for representing smaller stakeholders in workstreams where there are potential conflicts of interest.