Letter sent to the Ministry of Economic Development of Poland
As many of you might have noticed, on 18 July 2017 the Polish Council of Ministers submitted to the Parliament a draft proposal allowing the President to unilaterally terminate the current agreement on the promotion and reciprocal protection of investments, signed between Poland and Portugal on 11 March 1993. The primary grounds stated in the written reasoning is the European Commission’s negative attitude toward intra-EU BITs (i.e. BITs between EU Member States) and purported doubts as to whether the Poland-Portugal BIT is in accordance with EU law.
Given the importance of the subject, attached please find a letter sent by the Polish-Portuguese Chamber of Commerce (PPCC) to the Ministry of Economic Development of Poland, with our voice on this matter (with working translation version in English).
Detailed information on the subject may be found on following links:
http://orka.sejm.gov.pl/Druki8ka.nsf/Projekty/8-020-644-2017/$file/8-020-644-2017.pdf (draft proposal with written reasoning)
PPCC Letter sent to the Ministry of Economic Development of Poland
As many of you might have noticed, on 18 July 2017 the Polish Council of Ministers submitted to the Parliament a draft proposal allowing the President to unilaterally terminate the current agreement on the promotion and reciprocal protection of investments, signed between Poland and Portugal on 11 March 1993. The primary grounds stated in the written reasoning is the European Commission’s negative attitude toward intra-EU BITs (i.e. BITs between EU Member States) and purported doubts as to whether the Poland-Portugal BIT is in accordance with EU law.
Given the importance of the subject, attached please find a letter sent by the Polish-Portuguese Chamber of Commerce (PPCC) to the Ministry of Economic Development of Poland, with our voice on this matter (with working translation version in English).
Detailed information on the subject may be found on following links:
http://orka.sejm.gov.pl/Druki8ka.nsf/Projekty/8-020-644-2017/$file/8-020-644-2017.pdf (draft proposal with written reasoning)
The third edition of Workcamp Lodz has started
Holidays is a perfect time to rest, especially for students. However, the students of the Technical University of Lodz decided to spend their free time on hard work and help others. The third edition of Workcamp Lodz has just started, with the support of Mota-Engil Central Europe and the We support locally program.
During the previous edition of Workcamp Lodz, the students of the Technical University renovated the rooms for the Child Care Home at ul. Nawrot in Lodz. At that time, Mota-Engil Central Europe, in addition to the newly renovated road, managed to equip the Home with new beds, mattresses, blankets, curtains and other daily necessities.
This year, the volunteers from Technical University of Lodz with the support of Mota-Engil Central Europe will renovate the Child Care Home No. 11 at ul. Wólczańska. They will brick, tile, paint walls, equip and refresh children’s rooms. It is a charitable action, realized with great passion and commitment. Works started on Monday, July 31, and their completion is planned for August 15th. The action and activities of the 20 volunteers is supported by Mota-Engil Central Europe under the We support locally program.
Bank Millennium launches goodie – an innovative smart shopping platform
Bank Millennium has launched goodie – an intuitive smartly designed shopping platform open to all, which was created as an internal start-up. This is another step of the bank in implementation of the innovation strategy. In this new project the bank makes use of such technologies as artificial intelligence, image recognition and geolocation. The goodie platform also draws on the potential of Microsoft cloud computing.
Goodie gathers information about discounts, promotions and new shopping opportunities in shopping centres, online and traditional shops and in restaurants. Users will find shopping inspirations and promotional offers tailored to individual preferences and their specific location (e.g. in selected shopping centres). Goodie is also a new channel for communication of shops and shopping centres with customers, which will help them reach new consumer groups and to offer diversified discounts and special offers.
– The world of finance changes every day. The changes are driven by growing expectations of customers, the dynamic business environment as well as continuous development of technology. This is also why one of the strategic pillars of the bank’s development is now innovation and new technologies. Implementation of this strategy on such a competitive market, with FinTechs, HiTechs and telecoms around, requires us not only to keep developing internet and mobile banking services but also to be open to unconventional solutions. This is why we created an interdisciplinary team of people working together as a start-up. Thus goodie was created – a digital platform offering an ecosystem, in which merchants, customers and the bank through mutual interactions create value for all parties involved – Ricardo Campos, Director of the Electronic Banking Department in Bank Millennium said. – There are many scenarios of development of the sector. Perhaps in the near future banks will become integrators of non-banking services and in this way will find their place in the customer’s digital reality.
Creating goodie saw active involvement of Microsoft. Paweł Matulewicz, Senior Client Director at Microsoft Poland, Financial Services Industry – Working with such an innovative organisation as Bank Millennium is a special privilege. Our job was to help in translating the business concept of goodie to technical components of Microsoft Azure cloud. The purpose of the cooperation was to select the components in such a way so as to shorten the time to launch the app and to use possibly the latest available technologies.
Thanks to Microsoft support it became possible not only to build the platform on safe, flexible and scalable cloud-based infrastructure, but also to implement such functionalities as image recognition, machine learning – based recommendation engine or tools for multimedia management.
The current form of goodie is only the beginning of the project. Its further intensive development is planned i.a. based on such technologies as a chatbot, which chats using natural language.
– Designing and improving goodie we are trying to create new quality on the market i.a. by focusing on convenience of use and quality of the offers available on the platform, as well as creating new and as yet unavailable solutions and functionalities. We want goodie to become an inseparable shopping companion. Despite the development of e-commerce people in Poland still like to shop in shopping centres and thanks to goodie they can use new technologies for that purpose, combining convenience with good deals – Beata Krupińska, Member of the Management Board of goodie explained.
The goodie platform is available as an app for iOS and Android smartphones as well as an innovative internet platform on www.goodie.pl.
Bank Millennium launches goodie – an innovative smart shopping platform
Bank Millennium has launched goodie – an intuitive smartly designed shopping platform open to all, which was created as an internal start-up. This is another step of the bank in implementation of the innovation strategy. In this new project the bank makes use of such technologies as artificial intelligence, image recognition and geolocation. The goodie platform also draws on the potential of Microsoft cloud computing.
Goodie gathers information about discounts, promotions and new shopping opportunities in shopping centres, online and traditional shops and in restaurants. Users will find shopping inspirations and promotional offers tailored to individual preferences and their specific location (e.g. in selected shopping centres). Goodie is also a new channel for communication of shops and shopping centres with customers, which will help them reach new consumer groups and to offer diversified discounts and special offers.
– The world of finance changes every day. The changes are driven by growing expectations of customers, the dynamic business environment as well as continuous development of technology. This is also why one of the strategic pillars of the bank’s development is now innovation and new technologies. Implementation of this strategy on such a competitive market, with FinTechs, HiTechs and telecoms around, requires us not only to keep developing internet and mobile banking services but also to be open to unconventional solutions. This is why we created an interdisciplinary team of people working together as a start-up. Thus goodie was created – a digital platform offering an ecosystem, in which merchants, customers and the bank through mutual interactions create value for all parties involved – Ricardo Campos, Director of the Electronic Banking Department in Bank Millennium said. – There are many scenarios of development of the sector. Perhaps in the near future banks will become integrators of non-banking services and in this way will find their place in the customer’s digital reality.
Creating goodie saw active involvement of Microsoft. Paweł Matulewicz, Senior Client Director at Microsoft Poland, Financial Services Industry – Working with such an innovative organisation as Bank Millennium is a special privilege. Our job was to help in translating the business concept of goodie to technical components of Microsoft Azure cloud. The purpose of the cooperation was to select the components in such a way so as to shorten the time to launch the app and to use possibly the latest available technologies.
Thanks to Microsoft support it became possible not only to build the platform on safe, flexible and scalable cloud-based infrastructure, but also to implement such functionalities as image recognition, machine learning – based recommendation engine or tools for multimedia management.
The current form of goodie is only the beginning of the project. Its further intensive development is planned i.a. based on such technologies as a chatbot, which chats using natural language.
– Designing and improving goodie we are trying to create new quality on the market i.a. by focusing on convenience of use and quality of the offers available on the platform, as well as creating new and as yet unavailable solutions and functionalities. We want goodie to become an inseparable shopping companion. Despite the development of e-commerce people in Poland still like to shop in shopping centres and thanks to goodie they can use new technologies for that purpose, combining convenience with good deals – Beata Krupińska, Member of the Management Board of goodie explained.
The goodie platform is available as an app for iOS and Android smartphones as well as an innovative internet platform on www.goodie.pl.
CMS and DZP advised on the purchase of Sheraton Grand Kraków Hotel
CMS advised Invesco Real Estate, a global investment management firm, on the purchase of Wawel Holding Sp z o.o., the company owning the Sheraton Grand Kraków Hotel.\
DZP advised Algonquin, a pan-European hotel investor and operator , on the sale of Wawel Holding sp. z o.o.
The transaction closed on 28 February 2017for a total value of €70 million.
“The transaction was particularly interesting due to the significance of the Sheraton Grand Krakow Hotel for Krakow’s hospitality market.” said Wojciech Szybkowski and Adriana Andrzejewska from CMS, while Bartosz Marcinkowski and Marcin Kuliński from DZP stressed the complexity of the deal, not unusual in the hotel sector.
CMS’s work was coordinated by Wojciech Szybkowski, partner, and Adriana Andrzejewska, senior associate, working together with Piotr Przybylski, associate in the Real Estate Practice. Małgorzata Urbanska, partner, and Michal Derdak, senior associate, from the CMS Competition team, advised on antitrust clearance for the transaction. Konrad Werner, senior associate, from the Banking and Finance Practice was also involved in the project.
DZP’s work was led by Bartosz Marcinkowski, partner, and Marcin Kuliński, senior associate, assisted by Agata Iżyk, associate, all from DZP’s M&A & Corporate Practice, with key contributions from Magdalena Skowrońska, partner, Paulina Armada-Rudnik, associate, both from DZP’s Capital Markets and Financial Institutions Practice and Joanna Wierzejska, tax partner in DZP’s Tax Practice.