A seriously big name in the market, Koutalidis earns the respect of both clients and competitors. "I have a high regard for Koutalidis, as they have a very partner-led approach, which the clients like," says a partner....
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A seriously big name in the market, Koutalidis earns the respect of both clients and competitors. "I have a high regard for Koutalidis, as they have a very partner-led approach, which the clients like," says a partner. Another agrees with this, and says: "Koutalidis are leaders, they are our main competition."
Clients too are aware of their standing: "Koutalidis law firm is really one of the most prominent and reliable firms in Greece and I highly recommend them." They also have praise in particular for leading lawyer Nikos Salakas: "Salakas is a highly competent lawyer. He is an expert in financial transactions and derivatives," says one client.
The firm has had a very interesting year in terms of finance, with its projects team involved in all aspects of the €1.15 billion Aegean Motorway Project, including substantial restructuring work. This project's aim is to construct toll roads across Greece. A team headed up by partners Gregory Logothetis and Evangelos Courakis advised a consortium of bidders in this regard and freshly restructured the work completed in 2011.
A banking team, fronted by leading lawyers Nikos Koritsas and Salakas, advised on the Wind Hellas Group deal opposite Karatzas, acting for JPMorgan in its role as security/bondholder agent. The deal was nominated as one of the European Restructuring Deals of the Year in 2011 by IFLR magazine and closed in late 2010 for €1.8 billion.
Overall however, Koutalidis's biggest deals came in the debt markets, where they acted on two massive EMTN update transactions for banks. In the summer of 2010 they advised the dealers through agent Deutsche Bank on a €25 billion update for Eurobank EFG, and in April 2011 assisted Alpha Bank on a €30 billion EMTN update, marking the largest EMTN update by any Greek bank.
Leading lawyer Tryfon Koutalidis was also working on a large merger that was proposed between the aforementioned Alpha Bank and the National Bank of Greece. The merger value was between €6-8 billion, but the 'deal of the century' in Greece was aborted at the last minute in February 2011.
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