Cederquist is a well-established player in the Swedish market for all walks of corporate and finance. One of the strengths of the firm is that it wins regular mandates for both equity and debt capital markets deal....
[more]
Cederquist is a well-established player in the Swedish market for all walks of corporate and finance. One of the strengths of the firm is that it wins regular mandates for both equity and debt capital markets deal.
All-round financing, funds and investment partner Magnus Lindstedt gets good feedback form clients. "He was very up to date with regulations, more than others," says a client who was effusive about Lindstedt's knowledge on cross-border regulations.
One of the equity capital markets deals of 2011 for Cederquist saw Wilhelm Lüning and Lindstedt lead a team to advise Millicom International Cellular, the mobile phone technology company, in the first deal where are large cap company switched its primary listing from the US to Europe. The work involved helping Millicom de-list from the Nasdaq OMX in the US, and complete a primary listing of its shares through SDRs on Nasdaq OMX Stockholm. The deal concluded in April 2011.
Unge was the firm's standard bearer on the big debt capital markets deals and in one he acted on behalf of Kommuninvest i Sverige to establish a domestic bond issuance programme, which claims significance as the first Swedish issuer of such a programme in a decade. It was launched in October 2010 and involved a group of the biggest Nordic banks.
Unge also won a good instruction from Dannemora Mineral in which he helped issue non-rated debt instruments to raise $120 million in March 2011.
In a smaller but tidy mandate, partner Tone Myhre-Jensen advised PledPharma on its listing on Nasdaq OMX First North after it was spun-off from its former parent company, Accelerator Nordic.
[hide]
Banking and finance is what Cederquist is known for in the Swedish market. "Successful and appreciated by banks," says a peer....
[more]
Banking and finance is what Cederquist is known for in the Swedish market. "Successful and appreciated by banks," says a peer. In-house counsels from banks consistently rate the firm as one of the top three.
Clients praise Magnus Lindstedt for financial regulatory work. "He was very up to date with regulations, more than others," says a client from a leading investment bank, "he was breaking new ground on the deal and was competent not only on Swedish regulations but also on regulations in Luxembourg and Denmark". Lindstedt handled a list of regulatory matters for clients such as Carnegie Bank, Mertzig Asset Management for Ucits (Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferrable Securities) regulations and Pioneer Global Investments.
Another client says the firm has "great knowledge and expertise, in terms of their specialities and services we were very happy with what they could provide". The firm is a favourite of international firms in the local counsel role.
Mattias Larsson led a team to advise Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Company alongside Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer on a €1.34 billion financing for its acquisition of Volvo Car Corporation from Ford, and acted for arranger and lender Swedbank on the €692 million of acquisition financing to Nordic Capital for its public offer for Munters.
Johan Lundberg led a team to advise Swedbank and SEB Bank on a €463 million facility to Investor for its acquisition of Aleris Holding. Lundberg was also the Swedish counsel to EQT in financing for its acquisition of Dometic International.
Practice head Svante Hultqvist and Larsson were engaged by Handelsbanken, SEB Bank, and RBS on their €580 million financing to media company Eniro and worked for SEB Bank and Danske Bank on its €1.5 billion facility to listed medical company Meda.
[hide]
Cederquist had a number of changes through 2010-2011 and at one point in 2010 was down to just one partner. The team is back up to four partners, having hired aggressively....
[more]
Cederquist had a number of changes through 2010-2011 and at one point in 2010 was down to just one partner. The team is back up to four partners, having hired aggressively. New recruits include New York White & Case partner Martin Ulfson and Hammarskiöld & Co partner Carl-Johan Deuschl, as well as about eight associates.
"They are going to be good," says a peer, "Ulfson is good and they got a very good young partner from Hammarskiöld... a terrific local counsel firm, by far the most used, trying to build a partnership". "Good, young, very hungry, very eager to compete, I'm sure they will succeed," says another competitor.
The firm has its strongest reputation in mid-cap private equity deals, with clients such as Accent Equity, Polaris and Norlandia Care.
A foreign client recommends Ulfson and senior associate Carl Granström, "Martin [Ulfson] practiced for five years in New York so he was very good at the transatlantic aspects of the deal". "We wanted a local firm as it was an acquisition of a local company," says the client, and "they were very responsive, very good advice, it got tough but they were relaxed and we had quite an advantage over the company that we were buying".
In its top deal, the firm led by Petter Wirell advised Geely (of the Zhejiang Geely Holding Group) on the local law aspects of its $2.07 billion acquisition of Volvo Car Corporation, an historic deal finalised in August 2010.
Other key deals saw Ulfson lead a team to act for Research In Motion (RIM) on its acquisition of user interface developer The Astonishing Tribe (TAT), a key hi-tech sector deal. Lars Bärnheim meanwhile assist Accent Equity on its $64 million acquisition of Gunnebo Troax.
[hide]