Photo, Katarzyna Grodziewicz

Katarzyna Grodziewicz

Counsel
Baker McKenzie Krzyżowski i Wspólnicy Spółka Komandytowa

Biography

Katarzyna Grodziewicz is an attorney-at-law admitted to practice in Poland, a counsel in the capital markets practice at Baker McKenzie in Warsaw.

She graduated from the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Gdańsk in 2010 and the Faculty of Economics of the University of Gdańsk in 2009 (with honors) and qualified as an attorney-at-law at the Warsaw Bar Association (with honors) in 2015. She is a graduate of Chicago-Kent College of Law, where she obtained an LL.M. in 2010 (with honors). In 2014, she also completed a postgraduate studies in intellectual property law at the Jagiellonian University.

Prior to joining the Firm in May 2022, Katarzyna cooperated with another two renowned global law firms for over a decade. In 2020 Katarzyna was selected to the panel of international experts of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) as the only representative from Poland.

Practice Focus

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.

Representative Legal Matters

  • Advised Kernel Holding S.A., Ukraine’s largest producer and exporter of sunflower oil and a global leader in this regard, in connection with a tender offer for its shares listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange S.A., announced by its largest shareholder, Namsen Limited. The tender offer resulted in transactions totalling PLN 559.6 million.

  • Advised a shareholder of Mo-BRUK S.A. in the sale of tranche of the company's shares through an accelerated book-building process (ABB). The value of the shares sold was over PLN 142.3 million.

  • 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 Centrobank2 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

Admissions

  • Poland

Education

  • University of Gdansk
  • Jagiellonian University
  • Chicago-Kent College of Law (IIT)

Languages

  • English
  • German
  • Italian
  • Polish
  • Spanish