Iván Varga is a corporate lawyer and a senior member of White & Case's private equity, mergers and acquisitions and securities practice groups. He is a Hungarian and Australian qualified lawyer who has built a solid reputation for crafting innovative solutions that give clients a competitive advantage in complex, multi-jurisdictional transactions. Iván has helped a large number of clients close their transactions in Central and Eastern Europe.

Iván's know-how includes implementing a variety of mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance transactions in a wide range of industries, such as transportation, financial services, foods & beverages, energy, pulp & paper, cleantech, automotive and real estate.

A sample of the transactions that Iván has advised upon at White & Case are as follows:

• Advised Ferrovial/BAA in their sale of BAA's majority stake in Budapest Airport to German construction concern Hochtief for €1.9 billion. The transaction resulted in the firm being named Airport Finance Law Firm of the Year by Jane's Transport Finance in 2007;
• Represented Budapest Airport on the auction sale of its ground handling business, which was ultimately purchased by Turkish ground handling operator Çelebi;
• Advised Swiss foods group Nestlé in connection with the acquisition of the Balaton chocolate wafer countline business from Győri Keksz Kft., a subsidiary of Kraft Foods;
• Advised Swiss foods group Nestlé in connection with the sale of its Family Frost frozen foods business and a Hungarian ice cream factory to Eismann, a private German frozen food company and a rival of Family Frost; and
• Represented Royalton Partners, a private equity firm focusing on Central Europe, with respect to the disposal of ELLA Bank Zrt., a Hungarian commercial bank, to AXA Holdings Belgium S.A.

Prior to joining White & Case, Iván practiced from 1997 to 2005 at a prestigious Hungarian law firm, where, from 2003, he was a partner specializing in mergers and acquisitions, and corporate finance transactions. Examples of his experience prior to joining White & Case include:

• Advised multi-national oil company Shell, in connection with the acquisition of TotalFinaElf's Hungarian network of service stations, and the acquisition and sale of a number of service stations from and to OMV, Austria's largest oil-producing, refining and service station operating company;
• Represented OMV in connection with its acquisition of the ARAL network of service stations in Hungary from BP;
• Acted as counsel to Trierenberg AG, a leading Austrian paper and pulp group (since renamed Delfortgroup) in connection with the acquisition of pulp and paper mills in Hungary;
• Represented the Hungarian Privatization and State Holding Company in connection with the privatization of Csepel Freeport in Budapest; and
• Advised Ella Bank Zrt. (since renamed AXA Bank Zrt.) in connection with its asset-backed bond program.