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White & Case Expands its CEE M&A Capabilities with the Addition of Jan Andruško

The global law firm White & Case LLP is expanding its M&A capabilities in Central & Eastern Europe with the addition of Jan Andruško, who joins as a new international partner in Prague within the global structure of the Firm. Several recent additions to the Prague partner team through internal career promotion are thus topped by this brilliant professional from the market.

The hire of Jan Andruško supports the Firm’s strategic focus on further growth in M&A. His broad practice embraces mergers and acquisitions, general corporate matters, media law, dispute resolution and international arbitration, with a particular focus on technology, media & telecoms, as well as infrastructure & energy. In addition to being active in private practice, Mr. Andruško was Chief Executive Officer of Nova Group and Executive of CET 21 spol. s r.o. (TV Nova) between 2011 and 2013. He joins White & Case from the Czech law firm Kotrlík Bourgeault Andruško, of which he was a founder and has served as managing partner, and brings more than 20 years of experience.

“Jan is a very experienced lawyer and highly respected figure in the Czech business community, whose career we have been monitoring for more than fifteen years. Our CEE corporate practice focuses on private equity, infrastructure, energy and the sector of technology, media and telecoms, and Jan’s expertise in all these areas is unique,” said partner Jan Matějček, EMEA Regional Section Head, M&A/Corporate.

“The arrival of Jan Andruško will reinforce our leading position in M&A, while providing the partner team with unique expertise in the area of telecoms, media and technology. It is namely these strategic areas that we expect to be highly active, with Jan to be CEE Regional Section Head of this practice,” said David Plch, Managing Partner of the Prague office.

“From the long-term perspective, I consider White & Case to be the strongest global player in the area of legal services, not only in the Czech Republic, but also across the entire CEE region. On this very strong and broad platform, I will have the opportunity to join the top regional and global team of partners and lawyers, and at this highest level of quality, to put to good use not only my years of experience in the provision of legal services, but also my practical experience and strategic knowledge from mergers and acquisitions, with a focus on media, telecoms and new technologies,” Jan Andruško commented on his new role.

The arrival of Jan Andruško confirms the traditionally strong position of White & Case Prague in the CEE region. Last year, White & Case’s CEE offices advised on transactions valued at EUR 6.2 billion in total, and in the 2015 European M&A Awards, the independent information service Mergermarket named White & Case “CEE Law Firm of the Year”. Its success in international awards is attributable to, among others, the following transactions:

• The largest M&A transaction in the Czech Republic in 2015: Sale of ČGS Holding for CZK 31.6 billion – White & Case advised the Czech owners of a leading Czech rubber-making conglomerate, ČGS Holding, on the sale of this manufacturer of agricultural and specialized tires to Swedish industrial giant Trelleborg. The transaction totaled approx. EUR 1.16 billion (CZK 31.6 billion).
• Acquisition of Mall.cz and Heureka.cz for more than EUR 200 million – White & Case advised global investment group Rockaway Capital on the acquisition of the second largest E-shop in the Czech Republic, Mall.cz, and the largest price comparison website, Heureka.cz.
• Largest financing in the history of the Czech Republic  – financing of the acquisition of Telefonica O2 Czech Republic by PPF Group – White & Case represented a syndicate of banks headed by Société Générale in the financing of the acquisition of Telefonica Czech Republic, the leading telecoms operator in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, by PPF Group.

About White & Case in the Czech Republic

White & Case has been providing complex legal and tax advisory services in the Czech Republic since early 1991, and with more than 50 lawyers and tax advisors, it is one of the largest global law firms in the Czech Republic. 

The Prague office of White & Case has provided legal and tax advisory services to many of the major domestic and international corporations with interests in the Czech Republic offering its  clients full support with respect to all issues arising in the course of their business and/or investment activities in the country and abroad. The White & Case Czech practice concentrates on corporate and commercial law, mergers and acquisitions, private equity, complex banking and financial transactions, including restructuring and insolvency, debt and equity capital markets, real estate, litigation, arbitration, competition and anti-trust, IP /IT, tax and criminal law.

White & Case Prague Awards

The White & Case Czech practice is widely recognized by all of the legal benchmarking publications, including Chambers, the Legal 500 and IFLR 1000, which unanimously and continuously rank it in the top tier across all major practice areas. In the last twelve months, White & Case has won the following awards, recognizing the breadth and strength of its legal practice in the Czech Republic:

• Named "Law Firm of the Year" in the Czech Republic, International Financial Law Review (IFLR) Annual European Awards 2014, 2015.
• Named the only law firm in the Czech Republic to be ranked Tier 1 in all practice areas ranked by IFLR 1000 in 2015.
• Received the best overall rankings of all law firms in the Czech Republic in 2015, Chambers Global and Chambers Europe.
• Won Czech Business Superbrands 2015.
• Won CEE Legal Advisor of the Year (Mergermarket European M&A Awards 2015).

Jan Andruško – Profile:

Jan Andruško graduated from the Faculty of Law of Charles University in Prague. During the 1990s, he worked for the Prague office of U.S.-based law firm Dewey Ballantine, and was also a founding partner of the law firm Kotrlík Bourgeault Andruško. As part of his practice, he specialized in particular in mergers and acquisitions, corporate law, international arbitration and media law. The main projects on which Jan Andruško was involved as an advisor include the acquisition of Unipetrol by the largest Polish firm PKN Orlen. He represented South-African company South African Breweries (SAB) in the acquisition of the majority share in Plzeňský Prazdroj. He was also involved in legal disputes that CME had with its ex-CEO, Vladimír Železný. For CME, he prepared the acquisition of TV Nova from the PPF Group. Once TV Nova was acquired by CME, he worked as its main external legal advisor, and in 2010 he was appointed CEO. In late 2013, he returned to the legal profession.