A multi-disciplinary team of experts at DZP advised the French hotel firm Algonquin on the purchase of one of the most prestigious hotels in Poland – the Hotel Sheraton Kraków.

Algonquin paid EUR 38 million for the Krakow hotel, which will continue to be managed under the Sheraton brand. This is the first hotel in Central Europe that the French firm has purchased. The purchase of the Kraków hotel was one of the biggest transactions on the hotel market in Central and Eastern Europe in the past year.

DZP's assistance covered both legal and tax advisory. In the transaction the legal regimes of five countries had to be taken into account (Poland, Great Britain, Ireland, Switzerland and Belgium). Eleven law firms, four consulting firms and two banks took part in the negotiations.

The hotel, which is situated opposite Wawel castle, opened in 2004. It is one of the most luxurious hotels in Poland, with seven floors, 232 rooms, bars and restaurants and a conference and leisure centre.

The project was very complex due to the number of entities involved and multiple jurisdication. The acquisition of the hotel – one of the best in Poland – entailed significant financial restructuring of the transaction participants, which meant that numerous factors and dynamically changing circumstances had to be taken into account. All this took place in five jurisdictions which required coordination of the actions of an international and multi-disciplinary team. This made the process very complex and time-consuming – says Bartosz Marcinkowski, who handled the project at the law firm DomaÅ„ski Zakrzewski Palinka.

The project was led by Bartosz Marcinkowski, Partner in the Corporate and M&A Practice and Magdalena Skowrońska, Partner in the Capital Markets and Financial Institutions Practice, with the team advising the client also comprising: Paulina Armada-Rudnik, Rafał Surowiec, Sylwia Kuca, Joanna Wierzejska, Head of Tax Practice, Krzysztof Dyba, Tomasz Kalicki, Marcin Kuliński and Krzysztof Strzęboszewski, Lech Żyżylewski, Head of Real Estate Practice and Anna Okła-Woźniak. The entire project was supervised by Krzysztof Zakrzewski, Managing Partner.

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