CMS Cameron McKenna hires seven former Linklaters lawyers for PE team

CMS Cameron McKenna has expanded its emerging markets private equity practice with seven members, including three partners.

Ted Cominos, who joins CMS as the international head of private equity, leads the new group, which also includes partners Graham Conlon and Alexandra Florea, as well as senior associates and associates John Faurescu, Cristina Proca, Anela Musat, and Gokce Kilic.

The new team comprises members of the “flying squad,” a group that handled emerging market private equity-backed M&A transactions for Linklaters. Cominos served as head of Linklaters’ Central and Eastern European private equity practice until 2007, where the team worked on several deals, including the 2004 leveraged buy-out of Bulgaria’s leading mobile operator.

After leaving Linklaters, Cominos became a partner of Ethemba Capital, a London-based emerging markets private equity fund. Florea joined Ethemba as an investment manager in 2008. The remaining members of the team worked in private practice, advising on private equity transactions in countries including Russia, Turkey, Romania, and Bulgaria.

Last month, in its most recent deal, CMS advised Seoul Marine Co. when it acquired two of the largest solar-related projects in Central and Eastern Europe. The two projects are located in Bulgaria.