Riding the second wave
Jon Young: The main focus of your launch was on supporting Poland's development, but how will the firm accomplish this?
Ivo Deskovic: The government has announced it is speeding up privatization, which is something in which we have broad experience all across the globe. We can support private equity investment, which is new to Poland but becoming increasingly popular. We have long-standing experience in project finance issues, especially in infrastructure, and from working in the UK health sector we have gained experience in PPP [public-private partnership], which is being talked about a lot at the moment.
We will focus on infrastructure, energy, mergers and acquisitions and real property using both the team here in Poland and expert analysis from our global partners. And, as said earlier, we will create several hundreds of thousands of jobs in Poland through assisting its development.
The question everyone is asking is why now, when Poland has been developing for 20 years, and not in the 1990s when many other international firms moved in?
The international community regards this as a stable economy, so now is a good time to move into the market with this second wave of investments. We have been in Poland for a number of years already, but with cross-border investments only. And of course DLA Piper's situation has changed - in 2003, Weiss-Tessbach merged with DLA and the firm grew out of Austria into the surrounding countries and the CEE region. Poland was a target as the largest economy and the most developed, but we worked geographically, moving into countries like the Czech Republic and Slovakia first.
Jon Young: Joining the market now, in this second wave of investments, means you will be competing against firms already well-established in the country. How will you compete?
Ivo Deskovic: Finding the right people was crucial to the branch's success. The office started with just two partners back in July and has grown to 20 now. As the largest global business law firm, we already have a strong client base, including a number of banking institutions like HSBC or Barclays, insurance firms like Axa, large international construction companies and we will also target clients like the State Treasury, where we can offer a lot of assistance in developing Poland.
