News

Glatzová & Co. advises New World Resources in connection with its reincorporation to the United Kingdom

Glatzová & Co. advised the New World Resources Group (NWR Group), a leading producer of hard coal and coke in Central Europe and the largest in the Czech Republic through its subsidiary OKD, in connection with its reincorporation to the United Kingdom in order to be eligible for inclusion in the prestigious FTSE indexes.

The reincorporation has been carried out by introducing New World Resources Plc as the new holding company for the NWR Group via an offer of ordinary A shares in New World Resources Plc for ordinary A shares in New World Resources N.V. It was the first share-for-share offer for the company listed on the main markets of the London, Prague and Warsaw Stock Exchanges combined with triple listing of the offeree on these three exchanges.

The offer was made for all 264,698,715 outstanding ordinary A Shares issued by New World Resources N.V. in a ratio of one new ordinary A share in New World Resources Plc for one ordinary A Share in New World Resources N.V.

Ordinary A shares in New World Resources Plc have been admitted to the premium listing segment of the Official List and to trading on the main markets of the London, Prague and Warsaw Stock Exchanges. Accordingly, ordinary A shares in New World Resources N.V. have been delisted from the London and Prague Stock Exchanges and will be delisted from the Warsaw Stock Exchange.

With effect from June 20, 2011 New World Resources has been included in the FTSE 250, 350 and 350 Mining indexes.

The Glatzová & Co. team advising NWR on Czech law was led by partner Vladimíra Glatzová, assisted by Libor Němec, associate specializing in capital markets.

Vladimíra Glatzová commented: "This was a unique, challenging and complex transaction to work on, covering four jurisdictions (the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Poland). This is part of a long-term and ongoing relationship with this prominent client which has included, amongst other things, our role as Czech legal adviser to arrangers and managers of the IPO of New World Resources N.V., the largest European IPO in 2008 and the largest IPO ever in the Czech Republic. I'm delighted to continue working with NWR Group on such high profile and innovative transactions."

JPMorgan Cazenove was the sponsor and financial adviser. Česká spořitelna, Patria Finance and WOOD & Company acted as the Czech receiving agents, ING Securities S.A. was the Polish offering agent. Patria Finance also acted as the Czech listing agent.

New World Resources is being advised on English law by Linklaters (UK) LLP, on Dutch law by Linklaters (NL) LLP, and on Polish law by Weil, Gotshal & Manges – Pavel Rymarz Sp.K..

Legal advisers on English law to the sponsor was Herbert Smith LLP.