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

The M&A market has been active in Norway. One of the main drivers of transactions has been the private equity (PE) sector, which "has slowly started picking up again, even though auctions are more drawn out," says a partner. "There are some secondary sales, one private equity house to another, and industrial sales."

Another partner is slightly more optimistic about private equity but still discerns a level of caution in the way that firms invest: "Private equity is now consistently working on divestments and investments, they will buy good projects not just any project, it is a discriminating market, not like it was in 2007." Another declares that "leveraged finance is back, banks doing well and have solid balance sheets".

The most active sectors for PE have been in technology, telecommunications and computing, with PE firms such as EQT and KKR purchasing companies including Visma and Hafslund Fibernett. Technology in general saw significant outside PE investment. The other main driver in the market has been industrial M&A, and one of the big highlights was the first ever acquisition by a Chinese state owned company (China National Bluestar) of a Norwegian industrial company (Elkem).

"We have seen Chinese investments in shipping, solar energy, IT and telecoms, as well as some investments from India and even from Singapore," says a partner. These areas as well as real estate have all been active. "Anything related to energy is always important, and also the hydro sector is big while renewables are still developing," says a partner.

On the negative side, there are signs that some sectors are starting to weaken. "Shipping and offshore are struggling a bit now, they are weaker and more affected, while the whole solar energy market has more or less collapsed as it was heavily based on subsidies and there is now a complete re-pricing," according to a commentator.

According to one client BA-HR has a "high level; it is among the top two firms in Oslo absolutely together with Thommessen, they have the best partners in town, extremely good on the law and well fitted to being commercial and handling commercial issues".

The firm has a long list of highly experienced partners, however it is not immune to criticism. Competitors say the firm has a "philosophy of not growing in head count" and that is has "become less important over years", confronted with increasing competition from other firms.

Nevertheless, the firm did recruit, taking on experienced M&A and oil & gas partner Jan Jansen from Arntzen de Besche in late 2010. Clients highly recommend Bjorn Gabriel Reed and Svein Gerhard Simonnæs, with one saying that Simonnæs has an "extremely commercial approach in M&A". Aside from the leading individuals, Morten Smørdal often supports on the big deals.

In early 2011 Simonnæs and Smørdal worked with Slaughter and May to advise its key client Aker Solutions on the sale of its process and construction businesses in Europe, America, Asia and Australasia to Jacobs Engineering Group for $913 million. None of the assets were in Norway. Simonnæs also acted for Posten Norge and Ergo Group on a merger with EDB Business Partner (owned by Telenor) to form one of the biggest regional IT services group worth €1 billion.

Simonnæs and Lars Kristian Sande represented EQT on its €178 million purchase of Hafslund Fibernett, owner of Norway's largest independent fibre optic network in December 2010. In the same month, Smørdal and Tarjei Thorkildsen closed a shipping / offshore M&A deal for National Oilwell Varco for its $531 million purchase of all shares in APL (Advanced Production & Loading).

Thommessen is arguably one of the top two firms at the moment for M&A. It handled one of the deal highlights for the year, the first large acquisition in Norway by a state-owned Chinese company, and gets consistently high reviews.

It has one the biggest corporate teams but, according to client, a "very high availability of the senior personnel". "Even if they have a large team of associates the senior partner is always available, flexible and dedicated," says the client, "and they have a lot of experience on the corporate side and relevant capacity, for example in financing, tax and various industries; a very holistic firm".

Kim Dobrowen and Kjersti Ringdal advised Orkla on its sale of Elkem to China Bluestar Group for $2 billion, the first investment by a state-owned Chinese buyer in a major Norwegian industrial enterprise. Elkem produces metals and materials including silicon, ferrosilicon alloys, carbon and microsilica and has over 2500 employees across Europe.

Anders Arnkværn, Sverre Tyrhaug and new partner Lars Eirik Røsås worked with Latham & Watkins to assist Norsk Hydro (NHY) on the €3.69 billion acquisition of the aluminum operations of Vale, making NHY a major player in aluminium production and adding 3600 staff to its books. The deal included a rights issue and share issue.

Another standout deal saw Hans Cappelen Arnesen represent BW Offshore on the $500 million sale of its technology division APL (Advanced Production & Loading) to National Oilwell Varco. Thommessen was drafted in on of northern Europe's largest real estate deals, with Ervin Auren advising Norwegian Property on the €381 million sale of Norgani Hotels, comprising 73 hotels, to Eiendomsspar, Pandox and others.

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.

Wikborg Rein & Co is organised along industry sector lines and spread through offices across Norway, UK and Asia and has a strong international focus and shipping profile. In 2010 it recruited two to its 45 strong partnership: Filip Truyen from the University of Bergen and Ernst Ravnaas from Steenstrup Stordrange.

"Very happy with them, very commercially minded," says a client, "they have the resources and turn things around quickly". Another says: "They have been very good overall. It is one of the firms that can provide all the services [and] when it comes to offshore I think they are the best".

Another client has a slightly more critical approach, arguing that it "depends a little bit more on which individual you work with". However, a list of partners comes highly recommended by peers and clients, including Jarle Erik Sandvik in oil and gas, Cecilie Grue, Bergen-based Jan Erik Clausen and Per Anders Sæhle in corporate and securities, London-based Finn Bjørnstad in shipping and Susanne Munch Thore for "all-round corporate finance".

Arne Didrik Kjørnæs, Grue and Sigurd Opedal last year advised Acergy on its merger with Subsea 7 to create a new company worth €4.4 billion with 12,000 employees. Sæhle, Lars-Kaspar Andersen and Sandvik acted for Vale on the $4.9 billion sale in February 2011 of its aluminium business to Norsk Hydro, the largest take-over transaction made by a Norwegian company and involved several jurisdictions, including Norway, Netherland, UK and Brazil.

Line Ravlo-Losvik, Mads Magnussen and Anders Myklebust assisted Pandox AB, Eiendomsspar and Sundt on their $1.36 billion acquisition of of all the shares in Norgani Hotels, comprising 73 hotels, while Thore helped Grand China Logistics Holding (Group) Company on its $150 million purchase of 60% of the shares in Offshore Heavy Transport; a cross-border Chinese investment. Oslo and Shanghai offices were involved.

"Strong in oil and gas," says a client, adding: "very good, responsive, good at putting in right expertise for the legal issues, always call back." Another client says the firm is "not just good at the law but they talk confidently and are quite creative". The firm scores highly in M&A volume, with Mergermarket rating it top in both 2010 and 2009 and top in 2010 for the number of private equity deals. Peers say the firm "has done very well in recent years, increased market share and seems to be on a good roll".

"Especially strong in Stavanger, with venture capital and offshore oil and gas," says a competitor. The firm added four new M&A partners in 2010 and early 2011, namely Jon Kristian Sjåtil from Thommessen, Egil Willumsen from Kluge, Hugo Matre from the University of Bergen and Bjarne Rogdaberg from the Oslo Stock Exchange.

Jakob Villum and Erling Ueland are both "fairly prominent in private equity", while Stavanger-based Jan Magne Juuhl-Langseth is recommended for oil & gas. Einar Caspersen is well known throughout the market as one of the leading M&A individuals.

Caspersen and Sjåtil recently acted for HG Capital and Visma on the €1.4 billion sale of Visma to KKR in late 2010 while Ueland and Viggo Bang-Hansen advised Prosafe Production on the merger between BW Offshore (Hong Kong) and Prosafe Production (Cyprus) to create the second largest FPSO lease operator in the world.

Villum was engaged by Ship Equip International and Ferd on the cross-border sale of Ship Equip International to Inmarsat in 2011 and Erling Christiansen acted for New York based equity investor Lindsay Goldberg on its joint venture with Aker Biomarine and sale of Trygg Pharma and Epax.

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.

Arntzen de Besche is known as the leading oil and gas firm, however its portfolio of transactions shows a much more versatile operation. "They do a lot of things for us and we are very happy with their service," says a client, "we think they are good, young, service minded, intelligent people, not full service... they know us very well, they are a natural first call and they are very good at managing projects." Trond Vernegg, Erlend Bakken and Per Dagslet are the main lawyers for M&A.

Bakken and Dagslet advised a foreign company in all aspects of its bid for Orkla's sale of Elkem, which finally went to China National Bluestar for $2 billion. Vernegg acted for Panalpina Group, one of the world's leading suppliers of forwarding and logistics services, in its acquisition of Norway based Grieg Logistic and Dagslet led a large team to act alongside Baker & McKenzie for Veolia Transport's sale of its Norwegian operations (with a turnover of €228 million) in 2011. The client is the subsidiary of NYSE and Paris listed Veolia.

Dagslet also acted for Cooper Industries in its acquisition of the Norwegian company Hernis Scan Systems from LSE listed Vislink.

CLP is slightly different to its competitors as it is an M&A boutique, and not a full service law firm. "I think they are excellent," says a client, "very good attitude and quite unique. "Sometimes continental firms have too academic an approach; we were up against [a tier 2 firm] and CLP outshone them in terms of pro-activeness and being solution driven... the others could not compete," says a client.

Lars Gunar Aas is described as "very responsive, very bright lawyer, well known personality and a delight to work with" by one client, "the team was good and they were great on the acquisition", adding that the firm is "more hungry and more commercial" than competitors. In one deal, Aas led a team supporting a foreign firm to advise Thomson Reuters on a multi-billion multi-jurisdictional acquisition of Point Carbon

Aas also acted for Crayon on its €140 million reverse takeover and merger with Inmeta, the largest technology merger in 2010 and the first quarter of 2011. Alexander Lund helped Energy Ventures set up its $350 million Energy Ventures IV venture fund, the largest venture capital fund raised in Norway ever.

Fred Andersen and Merete Nygaard were engaged by Sparebank 1 in their public (public-to-private) completed voluntary offer to purchase all outstanding shares of insurance company Unison Forsikring.

DLA Piper is active regionally but has not yet carved itself a strong presence in the Norwegian market. Added to this, the firm lost a number of key M&A people, with partner Harald Hellebust and senior associate Christian Fenner both leaving in August 2010 and March 2011, respectively, to join Wiersholm.

Haavind comfortably earns its place in the ratings. "Professional, pretty dynamic, high energy guys, work hard, dedicated, good mix of commercially minded yet doing all the legal tick box stuff," says a client. Another adds that the firm is "a lot younger and more dynamic in mind set then some of the bigger firms and stack up in terms of quality".

Competitors note that the firm has been "working to get credibility as a full service firm" and that it has a "first class real estate practice". It works closely with municipalities. In 2011 the firm promoted Preben Brecke to partnership since he joined from BAHR in early 2010. The firm also recently recruited Christopher Jensen from Telenor Group to partnership, and he already gets good feedback from clients.

Kjetil Hardeng and Preben Brecke and Bjørn Olav Torpp all led on the firms large deals. Torpp advised Oslo listed Orkla on the sale of its shares in Borregaard Skoger to Statskog, marking the largest forestry transaction in Norway for many years. The transaction involved 40 of Haavind's lawyers.

Brecke worked with White &Case to advise private equity fund Nordic Capital Fund on a €317 million acquisition of the healthcare company Handicare from Herkules Private Equity Fund. In February 2011 Brecke also assisted Agder Energi on the establishment of joint venture infrastructure project 'North Connect' with Vattenfall, Scottish and Southern Energy, E-Co Energi and Lyse Energi.

Head of corporate Kjetil Hardeng advised Atea on its acquisition of the Norwegian IT infrastructure company Umoe IKT from Umoe for over €25 million in December 2010, one of the largest IT transactions in Norway in 2010.

Robert Sveen leads Steenstrup Stordrange's M&A practice, which is known for being strong in private equity. Sveen "is client-friendly and knowledgeable, he works very hard and very good with US counsel," says a client, "he has high integrity [and] a good international network".

"Responsive, knowledgeable, no complaints," says another client. The firm recently recruited partner Aksel Joachim Hageler from Wikborg Rein & Co and promoted two to the partnership: Terje Gulbrandsen and Terje Bjørndahl.

Ingar Solheim, Susanne Schneider, Gulbrandsen and Per Christiansen all acted on the firm's biggest M&A deals. Solheim led a team to working as Norwegian counsel to EQT in its acquisition of a majority holding in XXL Sport & Villmark for over a billion Euros. At the time in closure in June 2010 it was the biggest private equity deal in Norway.

Also in June, Schneider acted as local counsel to Read in its sale of Read Well Services for €22 million and working with Robert Sveen assisted Eneas Energy Holding on its sale to Palamon Energy Equity II (Energy Services) for €39 million. In April 2011, Solheim and Gulbrandsen also advised the target company Mestergruppen, which was sold by over 200 sellers for €51 million to Ferd Capital.

Vogt & Wiig is "heavier on litigation and more maritime related issues," says one client, but is "responsive, has good legal expertise and a valuable network". The firm has strong corporate real estate and shipping practices under Christian Ditlev-Simonsen (oil and shipping), Bjarte Bogstad and Arthur Duus.

Ditlev-Simonsen recently acted for the South African state oil company Sasol Petroleum International on the acquisition of a part of the Norwegian Carbon Capture Plant at Kårstø for €13 million, while Bogstad assisted Lillestrømbanken Eiendom and ØIE in matters relating to a €254 million real estate project. The latter deal involved the acquisition and merger of eight real estate companies and construction of a new shopping mall, offices complex and apartment block in greater Oslo.

Arthur Duus advised aquacultuire company Alsaker Fjordbruk on its acquisition of 100% of the shares in AL Nordsjø.

Aabø-Evensen & Co is a boutique M&A firm noted for the first time. "Very solution oriented, sees all problems but comes up with solutions, very efficient, turns around our issues extremely fast and always available to deliver in a short time period," says a client. Another says the firm was good at finding "practical and commercial solutions".

"Very much solution driven, one which can work with both parties," says a client, adding that the firm is "better value" and provides "better services than you would get in the big premier league firms".

Ole Aabø-Evensen and Nils Årseth led on all of the main M&A transactions.

In examples of work from last year, Aabø-Evensen advised on the largest M&A in the fishing industry in 2010, acting for Nergård, Hopen and Lysnes on their acquisition by a consortium of Norwegian investors in December 2010. Another high profile deal saw him advise private equity fund CVC Capital in its bid for the healthcare company Handicare, which was eventually sold by Herkules Capital for over €382 million.

Årseth was also engaged by Oslo listed Simtronics Group and the company's board on Autronica Fire and Securities' bid for the company. Årseth also advised Fugro, a large geotechnical services company of 13,500 staff across 50 countries and listed in Amsterdam, on its acquisition of Bluestone Offshore and its subsidiaries off Reef Subsea, which operates in South Asia and Australia.

Ole Aabø-Evensen (Leading lawyer bio)