In February 2009, Law 1/2009 amended and supplemented Law 10/2001 on the legal regime for real properties abusively nationalised by the state during March 6 1945 to December 22 1989. The legal enactment intended to settle the discrepancies that arose in practice due to enforcement of both Law 10/2001 and Law 112/1995 on the status of real estate for dwelling purposes that had been transferred to the state's property. The latter regulated the possibility of the tenants (other than the former owners or their heirs) of certain real estate properties for dwelling purposes owned by the state to acquire the ownership over such assets, provided that the restitution in kind was not previously applied for by the entitled persons, within a specified term.
There were some big changes to Romania's legal market this last year, with the launch of offices by DLA Piper, Kinstellar, RTPR-Allen & Overy and PeliFilip, all of which set up with strong teams and long-term visions.
Indeed, long-term vision seems to be the name of the game in Bucharest at the moment....
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There were some big changes to Romania's legal market this last year, with the launch of offices by DLA Piper, Kinstellar, RTPR-Allen & Overy and PeliFilip, all of which set up with strong teams and long-term visions.
Indeed, long-term vision seems to be the name of the game in Bucharest at the moment. The effects of the global financial crisis started to be felt in earnest in October 2008, with capital markets, M&A and real-estate activity dropping off dramatically.
However, law firms are seeing a marked growth in debt-restructuring work and pre-insolvency advice to many corporations, and there are suggestions of fresh investment into some areas of the economy.
Another encouraging sign came in Q2 2009, when the BNR (National Bank of Romania) agreed to lower mandatory reserve thresholds, thereby freeing up lending to a degree. There had been a fear that if the threshold dropped, money from the banks would simply be siphoned back to parent banks in other parts of Europe. But this was quelled when it was revealed that representatives from both the BNR and the EC met in Vienna and forged a gentlemen's agreement that, if thresholds dropped, the newly-available cash would stay in Romania.
Many firms are predicting high volumes of work in public infrastructure and energy projects. The IMF award of €20 billion to the Romanian economy is seen as an encouraging development, with between €4 billion and €6 billion of the total amount earmarked for public works, along with small bond issuances from local municipalities for infrastructure financings and various planned public-private partnership projects. Together with the strong interest in wind farm projects and the development of new nuclear facilities, this spells a growth period for the economy and the legal market in turn.
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