Selmer has a very secure position as one of the top five firms for capital markets. It is well embedded with savings banks and leads the way on their particular type of share issuances and financial instruments....
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Selmer has a very secure position as one of the top five firms for capital markets. It is well embedded with savings banks and leads the way on their particular type of share issuances and financial instruments. It is also strong on the academic side and has a very close relationship with the Oslo Stock Exchange.
One big domestic client says "I would not hesitate to use Selmer, [Dag Erik] Rasmussen is quite good in the equity markets especially, he knows it very well and has also been at the Stock Exchange a couple of years so has good experience". Another client says the firm "has more specialised lawyers in the field" than some of its competitors and recommends "younger partner" Lars Knem Christie for "equity and stock exchange work".
If there is a slight criticism it is over the depth and consistency in the team, which some peers believe is a bit "uneven", but this seems quite subjective. Aside from the two leading lawyers, M&A partner Are Herrem often appears on deals, as do Sverre Tysland, Jon Fredrik Johansen and Andreas Jarbø.
Rasmussen worked with Davis Polk & Wardwell to advise Citigroup Global Markets, DnB NOR Markets and BNP Paribas on the €1.27 billion rights offering for Norsk Hydro in order to finance its purchase of the Brazilian Vale Aluminium and also acted for Pareto Securities and Carnegie on Panoro Energy's €70 million private placement.
Christie led a team to advise SEB Enskilda and Pareto Securities on Northland Resources' equity offering in Norway and Canada, working alongside a raft of international firms. It was the first global offering in both markets based on duplicate prospectuses. The firm also advised Morpol and OAO Severstal on their buying sprees in late 2010 and in 2011 was counsel to IT Fornebu on its abandoned IPO.
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Selmer's banking and finance team has had a strong year and added a new partner in Tor Herdlevær from an in-house position at Orkla. The firm boasts one of the best teams in banking regulatory and is especially well embedded with the country's savings banks....
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Selmer's banking and finance team has had a strong year and added a new partner in Tor Herdlevær from an in-house position at Orkla. The firm boasts one of the best teams in banking regulatory and is especially well embedded with the country's savings banks.
"Very good" says one major client, "we did some very good work together on corporate and on financing, they helped a lot and were good on all aspects and good value, reasonable and open to discussion".
The team acted on a list of significant financings. Einar Grette advised DnB NOR Bank, Handelsbanken and BN Bank on refinancing to Norgani Group prior to its sale to Sech Holding, which marked the largest property transaction in Norway. The refinancing involved almost €800 million and a number of jurisdictions.
Grette worked with Katriina Kekkonen to advise Morpol on a €250 million loan facility from DnB NOR Bank alongside a €64 million bond loan to refinance existing facilities and finance acquisitions and working capital. The deal involved a number of jurisdictions with the firm coordinating with Dewey LeBoeuf in Warsaw, Holmann Fenwick Willan in London and Latham & Watkins in Hamburg.
Katriina Kekkonen advised Njord Gas Infrastructure on financing for its acquisition of ExxonMobil's interest in Gassled, the pipeline transporting gas from the Norwegian continental shelf. The financing of €1.3 billion is a mix of bond issues and a standby liquidity facility from DnB NOR Bank.
Regulatory partners Bernt Olav Steinland and Knut Endre were also busy advising SpareBank 1 SR-Bank (Norway's largest savings bank) on its conversion from a savings bank to a public limited company.
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Selmer has been very strong recently. Its high profile role on the China Bluestar acquisition of Elkem and its showing in Mergermarket and Thomson Reuters tables, which indicate the firm handled the third highest volume of M&A 2010 and highest volume in the first quarter of 2011, place the firm squarely in the top bracket....
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Selmer has been very strong recently. Its high profile role on the China Bluestar acquisition of Elkem and its showing in Mergermarket and Thomson Reuters tables, which indicate the firm handled the third highest volume of M&A 2010 and highest volume in the first quarter of 2011, place the firm squarely in the top bracket.
The Bluestar deal in particular seems to have started a paradigm shift in perception in the market making Selmer a tier one possibility. Are Herrem, Marius Juul Møller (who joined from DLA Piper in 2010), Thomas Michelet and André Istad Johansen bagged some high profile deals and clients like the firm.
"Very good, once in Norway they are one of the best," says a client, "good understanding of the workplace, of the different due-diligence processes... they did more than what we were used to". One client likes Selmer for its "competencies in Eastern Europe, the Eastern bloc", led by Michelet. "Very good technically, helped us a lot, the value was reasonable".
Are Herrem led a team to advise China National Bluestar on its $2 billion acquisition of Elkem in 2011, the first Chinese acquisition of a major Norwegian industrial company and one of the largest Chinese acquisitions in Europe in many years. Herrem also advised REMA 1000 on its acquisition of farming company Norsk Kylling.
Michelet acted for Herkules Private Equity Fund III in its acquisition of a majority stake in Norsk Jernbanedrift, marking the first Norwegian private equity investment in the railway sector, and, on June 2011, led a team to advise Njord Gas Infrastructure on its acquisition of 9.428% stake in Gassled Transportation System from ExxonMobil; first time a company without petroleum production on the Norwegian Continental Shelf has been a participant in Gassled (creative financing package still pending - a huge multi-billion dollar deal).
Marius Juul Møller and André Istad Johansen worked alongside Swedish firms Mannheimer Swartling and Cederquist to represent private equity fund AccentSix Holding on its acquisition of Aviator Airport Alliance Europe.
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