Jaroslav Havel

Jaroslav Havel is the managing partner of Havel, Holásek & Partners. His clients include leading financial institutions operating in the Czech and Slovak Republics, numerous Czech Top 100 companies, ministries, state-owned enterprises and some of the most successful and wealthiest Czech and Slovak private businesspersons.

Jaroslav specializes in banking & finance, corporate & commercial law (advising in particular on matters related to top management), mergers & acquisitions, private equity/venture capital, legal audits & legal due diligence, comprehensive projects, insurance, capital markets, energy, transport and healthcare law. Typical projects led by Jaroslav consist of advising major Czech, Slovak and international corporations and individuals on acquisitions and divestitures of companies and businesses, including the financing of these transactions.

Before establishing Havel, Holásek & Partners in 2001, Jaroslav worked for more than six years at prominent local and international law firms based in Prague, including Linklaters.

Recommendations of international publications

The prestigious international rating publications PLC Cross-border, European Legal 500, IFLR 1000, Chambers Global, European Legal Experts and Global Law Experts have all recommended Jaroslav Havel as a leading Czech expert in the fields of mergers & acquisitions and corporate & commercial law, and some of them also for insolvency & restructuring and banking & finance. The prestigious publication The International Who’s Who of Competition Lawyers & Economists 2011, compiled by the independent international organization Who’s Who Legal Research, ranks Jaroslav among the top five Czech experts in competition law. In 2007, Jaroslav was named the “Lawyer of the Year” for Banking & Finance in the prestigious annual competition organized jointly by the Czech Bar Association and the Czech Internet-based company epravo.cz. Jaroslav has published numerous articles on corporate law, mergers & acquisitions and banking & finance law in both Czech and international legal periodicals.

Transactions

Jaroslav Havel has acted as the lead counsel or has been instrumental in a number of the largest transactions executed in the Czech Republic in recent years, including:

• business combination of two major insurance companies in several countries in Central and Eastern Europe (a transaction worth EUR 5.1 billion)
• the largest bankruptcy proceedings in the Czech Republic’s history
• contemplated privatization of Czech Airlines
• acquisition of the largest Czech paper and pulp manufacturer
• acquisition of a home building savings bank with a subsequent merger of two home building savings banks
• contemplated acquisition of the world’s third largest engineering manufacturer
• combination of two leading Central-European soft drink producers
• sale of a shareholding in one of the largest Czech companies in the photovoltaic sector to a major global private equity fund
• joint venture of two leading European publishing companies
• sale of one of the Czech Republic’s largest construction companies
• several major acquisitions and divestitures in the food industry
• electronic toll project on Czech motorways
• a pilot B.O.T. motorway construction project
• investigation of extensive bank frauds

Membership in professional associations

• Czech Bar Association
• Slovak Bar Association
• International Bar Association
• The Czech Private Equity and Venture Capital Association
• SME Union of the Czech Republic