White & Case Advises Play Communications, Novator and Olympia on Acquisition of Play by ILIAD SA

Global law firm White & Case LLP has advised Play Communications SA (Play), the leading mobile network operator in Poland, and its reference shareholders Novator and Olympia, on ILIAD SA's €2.2 billion all cash public tender offer for all of the shares in Play.

"White & Case has been advising Play since 2014, including on its €1 billion IPO on the Warsaw Stock Exchange in 2017," said White & Case partner Ian Bagshaw, who led the Firm's deal team. "Our cross-border team of lawyers in London and Warsaw have advised on a successful and complex public to private takeover, which is the largest deal of its kind in Central & Eastern Europe."

Play is the leading mobile network operator in Poland with over 15 million customers and a 28 percent market share.

Founded in 2004 by Icelandic entrepreneur and international investor, Thor Björgólfsson, Novator specialises in investing in companies across the telecommunications, health and media/technology sectors.

Olympia is an international investment group with a presence in ten countries and internationally active in the retail, manufacturing, distribution, business software, telecommunications and real estate sectors.

The White & Case team which advised on the transaction was led by partner Ian Bagshaw (London) and included partners Marc Israel (London), Marcin Studniarek (Warsaw), Guillaume Vitrich (Paris), local partner Rafal Kaminski (Warsaw), counsel Jakub Gubanski and Grzegorz Jukiel (both Warsaw) and associates Ben von Maur and Elena Ruggiu (both London), Damian Lubocki (Warsaw) and Alexandre Balat (Paris).

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