Baker & McKenzie Advises on the IPO of Fortuna Entertainment Group N.V.
Deal Announcement
29 October 2010
Warsaw, Poland, 29 October 2010 – Baker & McKenzie has advised Unicredit on the IPO of Fortuna Entertainment Group N.V. and the dual listing of the company on the Warsaw and Prague stock exchanges. Baker & McKenzie advised on all aspects of the IPO, including drafting and filing the prospectus. The multi-jurisdictional legal work was managed and coordinated by Baker & McKenzie's Warsaw Office with support from the Amsterdam, Prague and London offices, and correspondent law firms in Slovakia, Malta and Croatia.
The prospectus was approved by the financial supervision authority of The Netherlands, where Fortuna Entertainment Group N.V. is based. The shares are listed concurrently on the Warsaw and the Prague stock exchanges. Trading in the shares in Prague started on 27 October 2010 and in Warsaw on 28 October 2010. The aggregate capitalization of the company following the issue of new shares is almost PLN 1 billion (equivalent to approximately EUR 220 million).
This landmark deal is the first ever transaction involving a concurrent public offering in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia as well as a listing on the Warsaw and Prague stock exchanges. It is also the first IPO of a company from the betting sector in Central and Eastern Europe. The preparation for the IPO took almost one year.
“The Fortuna IPO was a long and complex process which required the close co-operation and teamwork of several of our offices to navigate through the legal regulations in multiple jurisdictions. We are delighted to have advised on this project and at the successful conclusion of the offering, which has attracted tremendous interest from both institutional and retail investors,” commented Baker & McKenzie Warsaw Partner Jakub Celiński, who led the team.
The Baker & McKenzie team also included Amsterdam Partner Marc Rijkaart van Cappellen, London Partner Roy Pearce, and Prague Partner Libor Basl.
Fortuna Entertainment Group is the largest bookmaker in Central and Eastern Europe Group (in terms of turnover). Established in 1990 in the Czech Republic, Fortuna transformed itself into a multinational group and extended its operations into Poland, Slovakia and other countries via its internet platform fortuna.win.