Taylor Wessing advises FLE on its first forest acquisition in Slovakia

We advised FLE GmbH, an investor focusing on real estate in Europe and headquartered in Vienna, on its investment and acquisition of a 620 hectares forest in Eastern Slovakia.

FLE GmbH is a part of the LFPI Group (www.lfpi.fr), a leading independent, multi-strategy alternative asset manager in Europe, the United States and Asia, with more than twenty-eight billion euros in assets under management.

It is an important milestone in client’s investment strategy that is focused on building a diversified portfolio within established European forestry markets. Through regional diversification, the client aims to mitigate potential risks, such as the volatility of timber prices and the possible impacts of climate change. This complex transaction involved a legal due diligence of the property, negotiating the financing terms and purchase agreement and implementation phase of the transaction. We simultaneously advised on various other legal aspects, including employment and regulatory matters.

The transaction was executed in August 2024 and completed in September 2024.

The parties agreed not to disclose the purchase price.

Peter Malovec, Head of Real Estate Taylor Wessing Slovakia:

"We are delighted to have supported the client’s team on this exciting deal that shall promote further development of sustainable forestry and ecological management in Slovakia. We look forward to seeing the client’s future development and growth on the Slovak market."

Alexander Klafsky, Managing Partner FLE GmbH

"This transaction is another milestone for our business strategy bringing us into the forest investment market in Slovakia. We are very glad to have been working with the Taylor Wessing team as a highly competent and proactive partner who supported us through this project."

Team

This transaction drew on the expertise offered by the firm’s real estate and employment, pensions and mobility teams. The team was led by Head of Real Estate Peter Malovec and composed of Real Estate senior associate Jana Palčiková and Real Estate associate Veronika Čapeková with support of the Co-head of the Employment, Pensions and Mobility team Radoslava Lichnovská.