October 2025 – Kinstellar is delighted to announce several leadership appointments across our Service Lines and Sectors:
- Horst Ebhardt (Office Managing Partner, Vienna) has been appointed Co-Head of the M&A, Corporate and Private Equity Service Line, alongside Jan Juroška (Prague Office Managing Partner),
- Cătălin Graure (Counsel, Bucharest) will serve as Head of the firm-wide Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Screening Service Line, and
- Barbara Kusak (Partner, Prague) and
Rusandra Sandu (Partner, Bucharest) will lead our
firm-wide Consumer & Retail Sector.
Horst brings 25 years of experience in private practice, specialising in complex cross-border M&A, privatisations, and restructuring transactions across Austria and the CEE/SEE region. He provides strategic advice to companies across various sectors, with a strong focus on financial institutions, life sciences, and private equity. Over the past 12 years, Horst has been instrumental in some of the most notable M&A and private equity deals involving Austrian and Central European clients. In addition, he has a wealth of experience advising clients on corporate finance and governance matters, making him a trusted advisor to boards and senior management teams across industries.
With more than 12 years of experience focusing on FDI screening and competition law, Catalin is recognised as a leading FDI screening practitioner in Romania. He has led numerous transactional analyses under the national investment screening framework and successfully managed complex filings. Beyond FDI screening, Catalin advises on a wide range of competition law matters, including cartel investigations, sector inquiries, dawn raids, compliance programmes, merger assessments and filings, as well as day-to-day support across various industries.
Barbara is the Co-Head of Kinstellar’s local M&A, Corporate and Private Equity Service Line in Prague, and a member of our DACH initiative steering committee. With over 20 years’ experience, she has advised on complex local and multijurisdictional M&A transactions across a range of sectors such as financial services, automotive, manufacturing, healthcare, and, notably, retail and consumer products. Dual-qualified in Germany and the Czech Republic, Barbara has significant expertise leading large international teams in the CEE region and beyond.
Rusandra is the Co-Head of Kinstellar’s
local M&A, Corporate, and Private Equity Service Line in
Bucharest. Her expertise in the retail & consumer sector covers
an extensive range of matters, from M&A transactions, including
merger control assistance, structuring and implementation of
strategic investments/market entrance and exits, restructuring
processes, as well as coordination of compliance proceedings and
day-to-day legal assistance.
These appointments reflect Horst’s outstanding experience and impressive track record in market-leading transactions across Austria and the wider CEE region, as well as Catalin’s deep expertise in FDI screening and competition law in Romania. Barbara and Rusandra bring extensive experience and strong client relationships, positioning them to build a robust offering in the Consumer & Retail sector. I am confident that these new roles will further strengthen our sectors and service lines, while creating new opportunities for collaboration and growth across our offices.
Kristóf Ferenczi, Firm Managing Partner