Press Release

Thomson Reuters, the world’s leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals, has released its M&A Legal Advisory Review, which covers Mid-Market and Small-Cap M&A activity during the first quarter of 2014 in the global and major regional markets. LAWIN convincingly retains the top position among Baltic law firms in Europe and outperforms any law firm in Eastern Europe for deal count.

According to Thomson Reuters, during the first quarter of 2014, LAWIN had the highest number of M&A transactions in the Eastern European region compared with any other law firm, both in the Mid-Market M&A review (deals valued up to USD 500 million) and in the Small-Cap M&A review (deals valued up to USD 50 million).

LAWIN’s other major M&A transactions involved clients from Spain and the Nordic and Benelux regions. The firm is also cited among the legal advisors with European involvement in both the Mid-Market and Small-Cap M&A review.

Raimonds Slaidins, head of the LAWIN Baltic Corporate and M&A practice group commented:

“The beginning of the year has been busy, with a substantial number of major M&A projects completed or in progress, which confirms the indications of growing M&A activity and transactional work observed in various sectors of the Baltic market last year. Based on these observations, we are anticipating even more activity and interesting developments in the Baltic market in 2014. With complex M&A work being one of LAWIN's core competencies for more than 20 years, our team is ready to continue supporting our clients in achieving their business goals and ambitions in the region”.

Examples of projects advised by LAWIN in the first quarter of this year include:

(*) Advice to the Finnish company, Lassila & Tikanoja Oyj / Plc (L&T), in its divestment of SIA L&T, the largest waste management company operating in Latvia.
(*) Advice to the New-York based private equity and venture capital fund Insigh Venture Partners regarding their investment in the company which created vinted.com, – an online platform which allows for the swap, sale or donation of free second hand clothing in a socially responsible manner, with over 2.4 million members in Germany, France, Poland, Lithuania and Czech Republic.
(*) Advice to Berner Ltd., a 130 year old Finnish company, in the acquisition of UAB Kruzas Nordic Cosmetics Distribution, the leading importer and distributor of cosmetics in the Baltics.
(*) Advising a German venture capital firm Global Founders Capital in a funding of EUR 1.3 million into Estonia-based peer-to-peer lending platform Isepankur.

According to Thomson Reuters, dealmakers across the globe have reasons to be optimistic since worldwide merger activity has had the best start in several years and a resurgent IPO market reaching levels not seen since the technology boom.

For more insights on global and major regional markets, see the Thomson Reuters’ M&A Legal Advisory Review, which is available through the following links:

MID-MARKET LEGAL ADVISORY REVIEW - http://dmi.thomsonreuters.com/Content/Files/1Q2014_MandA_MidMarket_LA_Review.pdf

SMALL-CAP LEGAL ADVISORY REVIEW - http://dmi.thomsonreuters.com/Content/Files/1Q2014_MandA_SmallCap_LA_Review.pdf

(See p.13 for the Eastern Europe region, as well as p.5 for legal advisors with European involvement and p.11 for the Nordic region.)