Gide Loyrette Nouel has pulled out of Romania and will now coordinate its work in South East Europe from its Budapest office.
The existing Bucharest office and its staff, led by partners Bruno Leroy and Andreea Toma, have formed an independent firm, Leroy & Asociaţii, which will continue to work closely with Gide on a non-exclusive basis.
Leroy is dual qualified in France and Romania and handles competition, foreign investment, M&A and real estate. Toma focuses on banking and finance, M&A and projects.
The team, alongside Gide's Paris office, recently worked on the Comarnic-Braşov motorway concession, the first motorway PPP (public-private partnership) to be completed in Romania. The deal covers the design, construction, operation and maintenance of a 54km section of road over a 29 year period.
Gide senior partner Baudouin de Moucheron, speaking about the decision to pull out said: "This joint decision is in line with Gide’s strategy in South-East Europe, which is to coordinate a network of independent firms from our central platform in Budapest, as we have done these past three years for Serbia. Bruno Leroy and his team will very naturally be a part of this network."