White & Case LLP - Lawyers - Robert B. Irving

Practice Experience

Mr. Irving is the head of the mergers and acquisitions and private equity practices of the Budapest office. He has been resident in the Budapest office since 1997, and co-head of the office since January 1, 1999.

His practice focuses on cross-border mergers and acquisitions (particularly private equity transactions), international infrastructure and project finance transactions (particularly in the telecommunications and power sectors) and assisting multinationals with respect to their investments in developing countries.

In the area of mergers and acquisitions, Mr. Irving has recently led or is leading White & Case's teams advising:

Mid Europa Partners, advisor to the Emerging Europe Convergence Fund II, in connection with its € 0.45 billion acquisition of Baltic mobile operator Bité from TDC;
the shareholders in Invitel Távközlési Szolgáltató Zrt., the second largest fixed-line communications operator in Hungary, in the sale of Invitel to Hungarian Telephone & Cable Corp. for a total consideration of € 470 million;
the shareholders in Karneval Media s.r.o., the second largest Czech cable television company in its € 322.5 million sale to Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan (which have concluded an equity derivate agreement to sell the company to Liberty Global);
the shareholders of Astral Telecom S.A., Romania's leading broadband telecommunications operator, in one of the largest private M&A transactions ever in Romania: the US$ 416.5 million sale of Astral to UPC Romania S.A., an indirect subsidiary of Liberty Global, Inc.;
Invitel Távközlési Szolgáltató Rt., the second largest fixed-line communications operator in Hungary, in the US$ 30 million acquisition of EuroWeb Internet Szolgáltató Rt. and S.C. EuroWeb Romania S.A., the Hungarian and Romanian internet communications subsidiaries of EuroWeb International, the U.S. publicly-traded company;
AIG-CET Capital Management (Poland) Ltd., advisor to the AIG Global Emerging Markets Fund II, in connection with its US$ 20 million acquisition of a 30% stake in UTI Group, a Romanian conglomerate with four principal business lines: IT and Communications; security and defense; construction and engineering; and facility management;
Euromedic International N.V., the largest private health care services company in Central and Eastern Europe, and its shareholders, in connection with the auction sale of the company. The company was ultimately sold to the Warburg Pincus funds;
the Argus Capital funds in their US$ 72.5 million sale of their stake in FiberNet Communications Ltd., the third largest cable television service provider in Hungary, to the Warburg Pincus funds;
AIG New Europe Fund and Mr. György Wáberer in the acquisition by the Fund of a 30% stake in The Waberer' Group, Central Europe's largest transportation and logistics company, and in joint venture arrangements between the Fund and Mr. Wáberer (the majority shareholder in the Group);
Electricité de France, in relation to the € 95.5 million sale of its stake in ÉDÁSZ, Hungary's second largest electricity distribution company, to E.ON Hungária, which was structured to take place in the context of a mandatory public tender offer;
Electricité de France, in relation to its acquisition of Budapesti Erőmű, a leading Hungarian power generation and district heating company from Fortum Ou and Tomen Corporation;
AIG Emerging Europe Infrastructure Fund and the GMT Communications funds in their € 325 million acquisition of Vivendi Telecom Hungary, the second largest telecommunications service provider in Hungary;
AIG New Europe Fund, in its acquisition of an equity stake in TriGranit, a joint venture constituting Central Europe's leading commercial real estate development company, such fund and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in € 650 million sale of the joint venture's operating assets and creation of a new joint venture with respect to its development assets and the fund in the sale of its residual stake in the joint venture to vehicles controlled by Lord Nathaniel Rotschild and Sándor Csányi; and
Perrier Vittel (since renamed Nestlé Waters), in its acquisition of a majority stake in Kékkúti Ásványvíz, the Hungarian mineral water company (in the first contested public tender offer in Hungary).

Mr. Irving has been selected in the two most recent editions of PLC Which Lawyer? as a "Star Lawyer" among the lawyers at the Global 50 law firms. In the most recent edition of Chambers & Global, he has been singled out as "one of the most knowledgeable lawyers in CEE, and combines his extensive experience in the region with outstanding negotiation skills."

Bars and Courts
New York State Bar

Education
JD, University of Miami School of Law, 1990
CIAM, Ecole Superieure de Commerce de Paris, 1987
BA, History, Yale College, 1985

Languages
English
French
Spanish

Citizenship
United States