Katarzyna Grodziewicz

Katarzyna focuses her practice on corporate and commercial law, with an emphasis on securities law and M&A transactions, as well as on corporate governance issues for clients from various sectors, including IT, banking and finance and energy.

She has advised on Polish and EU law issues in a number of public issuances of shares and in public and non-public issuances of debt securities of Polish and foreign issuers. She has extensive experience in acting as a key lawyer in international teams of lawyers, providing legal advice to companies, financial institutions, selling shareholders, financial sponsors, strategic investors and investment banks in numerous international and domestic, initial and secondary, public and private equity offerings and M&A transactions.

Katarzyna has been recognised by international legal rankings such as Chambers & Partners Europe and The Legal 500 as, respectively, an associate to watch and a rising star in Poland for equity capital markets. In 2018 she was ranked as a “Rising Star” among 30 leading young senior lawyers in Poland in the ranking "Rising Stars: Lawyers – leaders of tomorrow"; organized by Wolters Kluwer, publishing house and “Dziennik Gazeta Prawna”, the legal and business daily. She has also been recommended by The Legal 500 in the corporate/M&A category.

• Advised Morgan Stanley as financial advisor and placement agent in connection with a USD 290 million equity private placement by Elemental Holding, a global urban mining and recycling company originating from Poland, with its headquarters in Luxembourg.
• Advised shareholders of Benefit Systems S.A. in the sale of shares through an accelerated book-building process. The value of the sold shares was approx. PLN 158 million.
• InPost S.A., a leading e-commerce enablement platform, and its majority shareholder private equity fund Advent International, on InPost’s first public offering and listing on the Euronext Amsterdam Stock Exchange - this was one of the largest IPOs of a business group from Poland (IPO’s value: EUR 3.2bn), and the first IPO of a Polish company on Euronext Amsterdam (the transaction won the 2021 Polish Deal of the Year Award form CEE Legal Matters).
• Grupa Azoty Zakłady Chemiczne “Police” S.A. as an issuer on the secondary public offering with a value of more than PLN 500m (approx. EUR 108m), being the first public offering conducted and the first issue prospectus approved by the Polish Supervisory Authority (Komisja Nadzoru Finansowego) under the new Prospectus Regulation, and introduction to trading of shares in Grupa Azoty Zakłady Chemiczne “Police” S.A. on the regulated market of the WSE.
• Dino Polska S.A. – representation of PKO BP S.A. Oddział – DM PKO BP w Warszawie, as Global Coordinator, Joint Bookrunner and Offering Agent, UBS Limited, WOOD & Company Financial Services, a.s. S.A., Oddział w Polsce, as Global Coordinators and Joint Bookrunners, and Erste Group Bank AG as Joint Bookrunner, on the PLN 1.65bn (approx. EUR 388m) IPO and admission to trading of shares in Dino Polska S.A. on the regulated market of the WSE.
• Prime Car Management S.A. – representation of Banco Espirito Santo de Investimento, Oddział w Polsce, Jefferies International Limited and Dom Maklerski mBanku in connection with the PLN 210m IPO and the WSE listing of shares of Prime Car Management S.A., one of the leaders in car fleet management and leasing services in Poland.
• PKP Cargo S.A. – representation of Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and DM PKO BP acting as Global Coordinators and Joint Bookrunners, Ipopema Securities, Raiffeisen Centrobank AG and Bank Pekao S.A. acting as Joint Bookrunners and DI Investors and Mercurius DM acting as Domestic Co-Bookrunners in connection with the privatization and PLN 1.42bn (USD 460m) IPO of PKP CARGO S.A., the state owned rail freight operator. This transaction was the first successful IPO of an EU-based rail freight operator and consisted of a public offering in Poland and an international offering to institutional investors outside Poland and the United States under Regulation S and to qualified institutional buyers in the United States under Rule 144A.
• Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa S.A. on the PLN 5.37bn (USD 2bn) IPO of one of the major Polish coal mines on the WSE. The transaction was the largest privatization and IPO in Poland in 2011, the fourth largest IPO in the history of the WSE, and the second largest European IPO in the first half of 2011.
• BNP Paribas Bank Polska S.A., Bank Pekao S.A. and ING Bank Śląski S.A. on the establishment of PLN 1 bn public bond issue program by InPost S.A. and the first issuance of bonds under the program (with a total nominal value of PLN 500 mln) and introduction of bonds to trading in the alternative trading system on the WSE.
• Ministry of Finance – representation of the State Treasury of the Republic of Poland represented by the Ministry of Finance in connection with the update by the State Treasury of its EUR 60m Euro Medium Term Note Program and several issues under the program.
• PKO Bank Hipoteczny S.A. – representation of banks Société Générale (global coordinator, lead joint arranger and dealer), Deutsche Bank (joint arranger and dealer), J.P. Morgan (joint arranger and dealer), PKO Bank Polski (joint arranger and dealer) and Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (dealer) in connection with the establishment by PKO Bank Hipoteczny S.A., a subsidiary of PKO Bank Polski, of an international mortgage bond issuance program with a value of up to EUR 4bn (and several issues under the program). This was the first international program for the issuance of mortgage bonds established by a Polish mortgage bank under which mortgage bonds were to be issued based on Polish law.
• Ghelamco Invest sp. z o.o., Poland’s leading real estate developer, on the establishment of a PLN 350m Polish bond program aimed at a pool of individual investors (and several issues under the program).
• Echo Investment S.A., Poland’s leading real estate developer, on the establishment of a PLN 200m Polish bond program, being one of the first domestic public offerings in Poland aimed at a pool of individual investors (and several issues under the program).
• ENERGA S.A. as issuer, on the establishment of its PLN 4bn (EUR 1bn) Polish bonds program, as well as first issue of PLN 1bn (EUR 250m) bonds under the program together with their listing on the Catalyst bonds market.
• OEX S.A. as a majority investor and the remaining shareholders of Divante S.A. in the process of selling Divante S.A., a company operating in the e-commerce and e-marketing sector, to Cloudflight, a European producer of software and solutions using artificial intelligence – a portfolio company of the Deutsche Beteiligungs AG fund.
• Offsite Archive Storage and Integrated Services (Ireland) Ltd., an entity held by the Montagu private equity fund, on the PLN 65m acquisition of ArchiDoc S.A. from OEX S.A.
• British United Provident Association Limited (Bupa), an international healthcare group, on the acquisition of LUX MED Group, the largest private healthcare provider in Poland, for EUR 400m. The transaction was the largest private equity transaction in Poland in 2012.