OREANDA-NEWS. January 13, 2011. Bloomberg has released the Global Legal Advisory Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) Rankings 2010 which rank law firm SORAINEN among the Top 4 M&A legal advisers in Eastern Europe. This is the first time that a law firm from the Baltic and Belarus region is so highly ranked by Bloomberg.

Bloomberg's recently published report, highly regarded in the global M&A industry, ranks SORAINEN as high as fourth place among leading law firms in the Eastern Europe League Table. The rankings are based on the number of M&A transactions advised by law firms during 2010, which includes mergers, acquisitions, divestures and certain other qualifying M&A transactions. During 2010 SORAINEN, operating in the Baltic States and Belarus, advised on 18 of these transactions, earning it top ranking alongside major international law firms CMS, Allen & Overy, Linklaters and Freshfields.

Notable transactions advised by SORAINEN include sale of the Baltijos laivu statykla by Maersk Group, acquisition of the Geonafta Group by LOTOS Petrobaltic, separation of banka Citadele and sale of its shares to EBRD, Rigas Miesnieks' acquisition of Jelgavas galas kombinats, BaltCap's acquisition of TREV-2 Group, and the merger of Unimilk and Danone operations in Belarus.

Bloomberg reports that in 2010 the total value of M&A deals in Eastern Europe grew by 69% (from USD 49.27 billion in 2009 to USD 83.48 billion in 2010), while the total deal number grew by 25% (from 597 in 2009 to 746 in 2010). Global M&A activity grew by 26% in terms of value in 2010.

"Eastern Europe was among the fastest growing regions in terms of M&A activity. We also evidenced significant increase of M&A activity in the Baltic States and Belarus in 2010, which helped us earn this prestigious ranking by Bloomberg. We forecast further growth of M&A activity in our region this year" - comments Laimonas Skibarka, regional head of SORAINEN's M&A and Private Equity Team.