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

Raidla Lejins & Norcous is one of the largest firms in the market, and it can also make use of its network of Baltic offices to source and carry out work. Taking this and its overall deal flow and magnitude into account, the firm finds itself comfortably continuing its tenure in the top tier this year, with market opinion fully supporting this.

"Raidla are undoubtedly a tier one firm. They are well-respected and very consistent," states one partner, while another adds "Raidla have a very big reputation and are doing well overall."

The firm also seemed to diversify its mandates this year, keeping the M&A deals that are essential to its practice but also flexing its finance muscles.

One massive M&A deal for the Estonian market saw partner Raino Paron advise globally-recognised automotive safety company Autoliv INC as it acquired its large listed Estonian subsidiary AS Norma. Working in the Russian market, Norma became one of the largest M&A deals in 2010 in Estonia, closing for €38 million.

Another landmark deal involved the single-largest investment ever in Estonia. This was the Eesti Energy deal, in which the aforementioned national energy company procured a power plant for €1 billon.

Raidla is a respected and highly active firm and one that seems to enjoy a very healthy reputation among its competitors.

"Raidla is our main competitor, but we have a good cooperation with them," says one, while another adds: "Raidla is the one we see in serious transactions. We respect them and give them our conflicted work."

Another points to the firm's cross-border abilities and expereince as a reason for its success: "Raidla is doing well. It has its pan-Baltic network and is plugged in from the old days."

The real highlights for Raidla this year has come from its banking and finance practice and those teams are currently active on a handful of multimillion Euro deals that are currently confidential.

A similar deal saw the team advise Riga city council's finance department with regard to a tender for account, management, banking and payment services. This deal represented a value of around €500 million on completion, which came in September 2010.

Another interesting mandate was the firm advising a banking syndicate, comprised of the Hungarian MKB Bank and Latvian outfits SEB Banka and UniCredit, on the restructuring of a construction and investment loan extended to SIA Diksna. This company is itself a subsidiary of the large Plaza Centers NV Group, an American concern that develops shopping malls and entertainment spaces. The deal completed successfully in June 2010 for €83 million, and leading lawyer Andrejs Lielkalns led on both this and the Riga council deal too.

Despite the sluggishness of the corporate market, the team at Raidla did manage to work on some sizeable deals. In one particularly noteworthy deal a team headed up by leading lawyer Dace Silava-Tomsone acted as the local legal representatives for MISC Berhad's subsidiary, MTTI Sdn Bhd, as Malaysia's leading shipping line acquired fully half the shares in VTTI BV, an oil logistics company, from Dutch energy concern Vitol Group. The share purchase agreement was signed in June 2010, with the total global value of the deal coming to around €521 million.

Raidla Lejins & Norcous is one of the stronger firms in tier two. In banking and finance the firm is starting to make some real inroads in its effort to break into the top tier. This owes much to an increased focus in banking and finance with the establishment of a finance and capital markets subgroup. "Raidla are quite active. They're a relatively strong firm in banking and finance," says one partner, adding: "The previous year, they had a large practice on commercial transactions with no banking and finance. Now, they have a specific sub team with more emphasis on banking and finance".

Clients have been very pleased with the quality received from the firm. "I must say that the firm is very professional. They're proactive, give good advice and overall they gave more than what was included in the mandate," says one client, "They were very responsive. As a local firm, their English communication, written and on the phone, was very good." Senior associate Akvile Bosaite has been the subject of praise among clients and peers. "She's the lady that's head of the sub-commission of banking and finance," says one partner.

The firm has had a busy year and supported the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Landesbank Baden-Württemberg, as senior lenders, in the provision of €47 million in loans to VMG Industry, a Belarus foreign limited liability company. This was in order to provide working capital and finance the construction, equipment and placing into operation of a €76 million greenfield wood processing complex in Mogilev, Belarus. The firm is advising EuroChem, a large Russian chemicals groups, in the €15 million squeeze-out of minority shareholders of AB Lifosa, a large Lithuanian fertilise manufacturer. Furthermore, Akvile Bosaite acted as advisor to UAB Pajurio investiciju grupe, an entity belonging to EReit (employees real estate investment trust) fund, managed by GILD Real Estate, in the renegotiation and restructure of a multimillion loan facility for the development of real estate provided for by Swedbank.

A solid well established firm growing in stature, Raidla Lejins & Norcous continues to make strides toward the upper regions of the M&A table. Market commentators have been near unanimity in their observation of the firm's increased activity in recent times. "This year we're usually on the opposite side to Raidla," one partner says. "Raidla are quite active but I'm not sure if they are tier one," another partner says. Irmantas Norkus has been described as "visible" in the field. "Raidla's managing partner Norkus is good," says one peer.

Clients have been content with the firm's performance. "I'm very satisfied with all the work. It was in a timely manner and very professional. They had great business understanding and they explained in detail what they needed," says one client adding: "They were very fast and their English was very good. This is sometimes a problem in Poland and the Baltics."

The firm's growing reputation owes much to its ability to attract leading mandates. Raidla Lejins & Norcous advised Mediq on its €85 million acquisition of the Healthcare business of Oriola in the Nordics and Baltics. The deal makes Mediq the biggest Healthcare business company in the Nordic and Baltic regions. Additionally, the firm advised Central European Pharmaceutical Distribution, a division of Polska Grupa Farmaceutyczna, in the exercise of a put option agreement with the Lithuanian shareholder regarding the €25 million acquisition of the remaining 49% of shares in UAB Nacionaline farmacijos grupe. Furthermore, in private equity, the firm advised BaltCap on its proposed acquisition of up to 100% of shares in UAB Kelprojektas, one of the leading transport infrastructure engineering companies in Lithuania.

"They're good value for money. They're not expensive when compared to Western law firms," one client says.