Rymarz Zdort advises on sale of controlling stake in Archicom to Echo Investment

The law firm of Rymarz Zdort advised the founders of and Archicom S.A. on the sale of a controlling stake in Archicom to Echo Investment S.A. representing 66.01% of the share capital and 65.99% of the votes at the general meeting of Archicom.

The preliminary agreement was signed on 17 February 2021. The price for the block of shares amounts to PLN 425.1 million and will be partially offset by way of the founders subscribing for PLN 188 million in bonds issued by Echo Investment .

The parties agreed to exclude from the scope of the transaction the development activity conducted outside the city of Wrocław by subsidiary Archicom Polska, as well as the architectural and design services conducted by Archicom Studio Projekt.

In addition, as part of the transaction, an option agreement was executed under which Echo Investment will acquire, or designate an entity to acquire, by 15 March 2023, shares in the share capital of an SPV holding 8.31% of the shares in Archicom.

The Archicom Group is one of the oldest developers and a leader on the Wrocław real estate market. The company celebrates its 35th anniversary this year, and its hallmarks are multi-stage housing estates created in the spirit of functional and people-friendly architectural design. Since 2016, it has been listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Upon the completion of the transaction, the resulting Echo-Archicom Group will be the largest developer in the residential sector in Poland with over 7,000 apartments under construction in 2021 and a joint existing landbank exceeding 15,000 apartments.

“We are proud that the founders of Archicom Group trusted us with handling this transaction, which turned out to be one of the most complex and multifaceted in which I have ever been involved. This transaction, as well as a number of other similar projects completed for our firm’s clients such as Robyg, Echo Investment, Capital Park, Griffin Real Estate, Lone Star, Ronson Europe and Ares Management confirm our undisputed position as a leader in M&A transactions for real estate developers”, said Paweł Zdort, a managing partner of the firm.

The work of the team advising on the transaction was led by Paweł Zdort, managing partner, and Jacek Zawadzki, a partner in the corporate department, who were supported by a team of lawyers and advisors consisting of: Marcin Płonka, senior associate; Jerzy Rostworowski, senior associate; Marzena Iskierka, associate; Aleksander Jakubisiak, associate; Marek Kanczew, counsel; Antonina Falandysz-Ziecik, senior associate; Monika Kierepa, partner; Tomasz Bąkowski, senior associate; Robert Krasnodębski, partner; Marcin Iwaniszyn, partner; Piotr Fedorowicz, partner; and Iwona Her, partner.