Waselius & Wist's capital market teams is led by Tarja Wist, "very talented [and] brilliant," according to one competitor. Wist is a prominent capital markets expert in the market, although there is mixed opinion, not in terms of quality but in activity....
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Waselius & Wist's capital market teams is led by Tarja Wist, "very talented [and] brilliant," according to one competitor. Wist is a prominent capital markets expert in the market, although there is mixed opinion, not in terms of quality but in activity.
"Tarja is very active but in my view she is concentrating more on banking and working on the securitisations market," says one peer. The firm focuses on investment banks and bigger ticket cross-border work, which may account for the patchy feedback given that this has been the slowest part of the capital markets.
The firm acted primarily on the debt side, in notable cases advising Huhtamäki on the Issuance and listing on Nasdaq OMX Helsinki of a SKr 450 million (€49 million) floating rate unsecured bond and with Linklaters the arrangers, including Barclays Capital, Danske Bank, Commerzbank and Nordea Bank, on a €1.5 billion EMTN Programme by Fingrid listed on the LSE.
The firm advised the lead investor in GeoSentric's private placement on convertible bonds and helped JPMorgan update a structured products programme for the issuance of notes, warrants and certificates. Elsewhere, the firm advised Natixis on its €10 billion issuance programme and RBS in relation to some equity offerings.
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Most of Waselius & Wist's banking work is done for lenders in large multi-jurisdictional financings. It is known as a "very high quality" boutique firm, say peers and listed by Linklaters as the regulatory contact in Finland under its Blue Flag system, giving it possibly the largest market share in regulatory....
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Most of Waselius & Wist's banking work is done for lenders in large multi-jurisdictional financings. It is known as a "very high quality" boutique firm, say peers and listed by Linklaters as the regulatory contact in Finland under its Blue Flag system, giving it possibly the largest market share in regulatory. The team is well versed in meeting international standards, most notably former London-based lawyer Lauri Peltola.
"We do banking stuff with them, they are always our first choice for anything with a Finnish element - very responsive, very commercial, fees were sensible, they don't upset anyone," says one client. According to another: "Peltola was hands on, responsive [and] turned things around quickly; she doesn't make points for the sake of it." The client adds that the firm is their "first choice, we've done a run of things with them they have a good range in profile".
Peltola often works with associate Timo Lehtimäki and the pair advised the senior lenders on the Finnish aspects of a €2 billion debt-for-equity swap in the restructuring of European Directories Group, and the senior lenders on the restructuring of Paroc Group's €750 million debt. In the latter case, the lenders took an 87.5% equity share in Paroc to reduce the debt.
The firm acted for a syndicate of banks on a €2.6 billion refinancing of Phoenix Pharmahandel (Tamro, in Finland) and advised a syndicate, including Handelsbanken, Nordea Bank Finland and Pohjola Bank, on a €200 million loan to Finnair. On a borrower deal, Waselius & Wist was engaged by Triton to advise on financing for its acquisition of Ovako's bar, tube and ring businesses.
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Waselius & Wist gets a fair share of cross-border, private equity and M&A work. The firm is best known for its involvement on international deals and good international network, which exposes it to some very large corporate transactions....
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Waselius & Wist gets a fair share of cross-border, private equity and M&A work. The firm is best known for its involvement on international deals and good international network, which exposes it to some very large corporate transactions.
In September 2010 the firm provided Finnish legal advice to Visma group and its owner HG Capital on the acquisition by KKR of a 76.9% stake in Visma for and global total of €1.4 billion. The firm also acted as local counsel to Triton on its acquisition of the bar, tube and ring businesses of the steel company Ovako Group, including 12 production sites in Finland and Sweden.
Lauri Peltola advised Mediq on its €85 million acquisition of Oriola-KD's healthcare trade business, while Jan Waselius acted for Norwegian Property on the Finnish aspects of the divestment of shares in Norgani Hotels to Pandox. The global value of the acquisition was €1.1 billion.
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