Greece

Kelemenis & Co. is a premium Athens-based law firm providing quality legal services in the key corporate and commercial areas. The firm advises a varied client base that includes corporations, governments, large institutions and high-net-worth individuals. It has built a reputation for acting on complex, high volume cross-border transactions for a range of corporate and financial institution clients. The firm’s track record spreads across an array of sectors including hotels & leisure, energy, infrastructure, real estate, retail and technology.

Kelemenis & Co. has been involved in the sector of hotels & leisure since its inception and has continuously developed the practice. It advises some of the country’s largest and most prestigious hotel chains and several domestic and international investors, private equity funds, travel companies and operators on the full range of legal services including acquisitions, disposals, developments and construction, equity capital, bond issues, litigation and M&As. Given the sector’s focus on real estate, transactions involve advanced financing solutions which also make use of the firm’s deal structuring, finance and tax expertise.

The firm’s work includes, among others, the following:

• Hotels management contracts;
• Operating leases of hotels;
• Acquisitions and disposals;
• Development and construction;
• Franchising schemes;
• Joint ventures;
• Incentives and grants;
• Domestic regulatory and employment matters peculiar to the sector;
• Sector-specific litigation; and
• Tax compliance, especially on VAT.

Recent highlights include:

• Acquisition of travel company Youtravel.com by FTI Tourstik GmbH.
• Arbitration over the demerger of the Sbokos Hotels Group, one of the largest of its kind in Greece.
• Acting for Aquis Hotels & Resort in multi-jurisdiction demerger involving Greece, UK and Cyprus.
• Advice to UK-based fund Warwick Capital Partners on contemplated acquisitions in the Greek hotel sector.
• Establishment and corporate restructuring of Meeting Point Hellas, a subsidiary of Meeting Point International.
• A joint venture between two large hotel chains in the Greek islands.