BIO

Ivan Barabáš is the founding partner of FORLEX with more than fifteen-years experience providing legal services to clients including leading international and Czech corporations, investors and private businesspersons. Ivan Barabáš specializes in mergers & acquisitions, corporate insolvency & restructurings, and further in specific issues within the area of banking & finance. In his long-term legal career, Ivan Barabáš also advises clients on wealth management, director’s liability, forensic and legal due diligence, 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 further for the ČSOB financial group.

SPECIALIZATION

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

PROFILE TRANSACTIONS AND ADVISORY PROJECTS

• 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
• Advising on the sale of a part of the enterprise to the world's leading supplier of compound feed for livestock, including legal support in notifying the transaction to the Competition Office and concluding a framework supply contract with the buyer for the post-closing period
• Representing a real estate investment fund in the acquisition of a company owning an apartment building in Vodičkova Street in Prague, including a legal review of the company's assets and negotiating syndicated bank financing documentation
• 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 a Czech company on its acquisition of a projection company providing supplies in the energy sector, including advising on post-acquisition cooperation for ongoing projects
• Advising a Slovenian group on its acquisition of a Czech company focused on the development, design, manufacture and sale of electromechanical components for the automotive, electronics and electric industries
• 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
• dvising 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 loans 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 director’s liability and corporate governance matters