IFLR 1000
The Guide to the World's Leading Financial Law Firms

Wiersholm Mellbye & Bech has a very broad team which is especially capable on the equity side. Sverre Sandvik and Tone Østensen lead the practice while Knut Bergo, Erik Thyness, Erling Lind, Eystein Eriksrud and Andreas Mellbye are all able to lead big transactions and are all recognised by peers. The firm has a strong profile especially with domestic clients.

One of the biggest deals of the year saw Thyness, Thomas Svensen and Østensen advise Statoil on its €1.4 billion IPO on the Oslo stock exchange following the seperation of its fuel and retail business.

Lind, who has an energy and shipping focus, advised North Atlantic Drilling on its $425 million private placement of shares and Seawell Leading on its $430 million private placement and subsequent listing in Oslo.

Eriksrud and Østensen were supporting for Pareto Securities on the €462 million pending IPO of Sevan Drilling while Eriksrud worked with Seadrill on its $650 million convertible bond issue in October 2010. Elsewhere, Mellbye and Simen Mejlænder acted for Ocean Rig on a $500 million private placement.

Wiersholm Mellbye & Bech has a very broad financing practice and has handled some very large private equity acquisition financings, syndicated loan agreements, revolving facilities and public-private partnership (PPP) related transactions.

The firm's top three lawyers are Leif Moltke-Hansen, Erik Ramm and Kaare Sverdorp. Clients see Ramm as "very, very experienced" and an "excellent commercial lawyer", while peers say Sverdorp is "a new generation banking partner who we see often".

Ramm advised DnB NOR Bank as agent on behalf of a syndicate of banks for a €572 million exploration facility to Det Norske Oljeselskap, involving over 70 production licences. Moltke-Hansen was perhaps the most active, handling a string of different types of high value financings. Among them, he led teams to act as supporting counsel to Linklaters London advising Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank on a $400 million revolving facility to PGNiG Norway to finance the Skarv oil field.

Moltke-Hansen was also engaged by Altor Equity Partners for acquisition financing of €190 million from Nordea Bank Norge, by Goldman Sachs and RBS on a $550 million facility to KCA Deutang Drilling and by RBS on its sale of non-core project finance assets including the sale of two financings in Norway with Agder OPS Finansselskap and Agder OPS Vegselskap as borrowers.

Sverdorp led teams to advise Continental and its Norwegian subsidiary in connection with Europe wide amendments to a €13.5 billion facilities agreement between Continental and a syndicate of banks led by Commerzbank and Ocean Rig subsidiary Drillship Holdings in connections with $800 million facility from a syndicate of international banks.

Wiersholm Mellbye & Bech is consistently seen as one of the two leaders in M&A at the moment and it has possibly the strongest domestic profile in terms of its industrial and private equity clientele. It recently increased capacity, hiring two M&A lawyers from DLA Piper: partner Harald Hellebust in August 2010 and senior associate Christian Fenner in March 2011. Hellebust in particular is often noted by peers as a "rising star" in M&A.

The firm also has one of the best deal lists for 2010-2011, which saw Ståle Gjengset and Jarle Kvam act in the largest ever private equity deal in Norway, advising KKR (Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co) on its €1.39 billion takeover of Visma in December 2010.

On another technology deal, Kvam advised Cisco Systems on the largest ever takeover by a foreign party in Norway: Cisco's acquisition of Tandberg (listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange) for €2.3 billion.

Eystein Eriksrud represented Subsea 7 on its merger with Acergy to create a €4.4 billion entity create a global leader in seabed-to-surface engineering and construction and one of the largest companies listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange and Erik Thyness led a team to advise Statoil on the separation of its energy and retail business in October 2010. The latter led to the IPO of Statoil.