White & Case LLP - Lawyers

Practice Experience

Doru Epure is a Senior Counsel and heads the Finance and Tax Group in the Bucharest office. He is a lawyer qualified in Romanian law and has over 13 years of experience, three of which in the United States. Doru has advised public, private, and state-owned companies on large-scale M&A, corporate finance, tax and debt restructuring transactions, as well as complex commercial litigation and judicial reorganisations.

The list of companies he has advised includes: SN Nuclearelectrica SA (the Romanian nuclear power producer); CN Loteria Română SA (the Romanian national lottery); the Romanian Bank for Development; AMCI Capital; Anglo-Romanian Bank; Wells-Fargo Bank; Cord S.A.; Radix S.A.; Astrazeneca; the Dunărea Fund; and the Romania-Moldova Direct Fund.

Since the opening of the Bucharest office of White & Case in January 2008, Doru was part of the team advising Landesbank Baden Wurttemberg on a € 70 million real estate refinancing. He was also involved in advising China Development Bank in connection with € 220 million financing of Zapp and its operating companies to purchase telecom equipment.

Doru’s other recent experience includes:

Advising Cord SA, one of the major Romanian cord and wire manufacturers, on certain issues related to the company's reporting obligations to the National Securities Commission
Advising SN Nuclearelectrica SA, a Romanian state-owned nuclear energy producer, on the drafting, negotiation of (and, subsequently, compliance with certain aspects of) buyer, commercial credit agreements with both export credit agencies and independent or syndicated lenders and the Romanian Ministry of Public Finance.

Most significant deals on bankruptcy-related matters include:

Representing a Dutch company in collecting a cca € 5 million debt from a local group of debtors (a bankruptcy-related procedure)
Representing of Wells Fargo Bank in its recovery of a large amount of money from a Romanian bank
Representing R/J Import AG, a Swiss corporation active in agricultural projects in Romania, on various corporate, tax, merger, and bankruptcy issues
Advised one of the Romanian subsidiaries of a multinational group active in tobacco business on multiple rounds of an attempted out-of-court settlement of contract and financial dispute with a former local supplier of tobacco and tobacco processing services, and subsequently in the litigation of the aforementioned dispute and during the enforcement of the resulting € 1.1 million judicial order against the debtor.

In the area of M&A, Doru advised numerous clients on acquisitions, sales and corporate reorganisations in Romania, among which worth mentioning are:

AMCI Capital, a Swiss investment group, in a USD 21 million acquisition of a significant stake in a company listed on the Bucharest stock exchange
EP Commerce OOD, a Bulgarian holding company, on the acquisition (through privatisation) of a majority stake in CORD SA, including various follow-on matters related to its shareholding interests in the company; subsequently, he advised the same client in the sale of such interests to a third party
Tango Group Intl., a multinational clothes manufacturer, in connection with the € 1.8 million sale of substantially all the assets of the Romanian subsidiary to a Turkish venture, followed by the termination of the remaining Romanian shell through a bankruptcy-related procedure
Nova Coal AG, a Swiss corporation active in imports and exports of minerals, on the acquisition (through privatisation) of the conveyer belts manufacturing company ARTECA SA in Bucharest, from the Romanian State
Paprika Group, a group of companies of UK-Hungarian ownership, active in the media business, on splitting the group’s local operations in legally independent business organisations focused on specific media and other activities
Multinational tobacco group on the merger of all of its Romanian operations into one legal entity.

Bars and Courts
Romanian Bar Association, 1994
Bucharest Bar Association, 2003

Education
LLB, University of Craiova, Faculty of Law, Craiova, Romania, 1994
BA, University of Craiova, Faculty of Letters and History, Craiova, Romania, 1991

Professional Associations and Memberships
Romanian Bankruptcy Institute, 2000
International Bar Association, 2008

Publications
Drept Vamal (Customs Law), a treatise on Romanian customs law, co-written with Hon. Carmen Mladen, a justice with the Craiova Court of Appeals, Cartea Romaneasca Publishing House, 1997.
Indrumator Vamal (Customs Law Handbook), a handbook/guide for practitioners in customs law and for customs officers schools, co-written with Hon. Carmen Mladen, Cartea Romaneasca Publishing House, 1998.
Current Issues Concerning Land Transfer Agreements, an article co-written with associate Irina Mayer, published in the German language De-Biz (a general business magazine) in 2005.

Languages
English
Romanian

Citizenship
Romania