OREANDA-NEWS. January 29, 2014. Bloomberg has released its Global Legal Advisory Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) Rankings 2013 which ranks law firm SORAINEN in 8th place among M&A legal advisers in Eastern Europe and in first place among regional Baltic-Belarusian law firms.

During 2013, SORAINEN advised on 17 M&A transactions (qualifying for Bloomberg’s criteria) in the Eastern European market earning its high ranking after major international law firms such as CMS, Allen & Overy, and White & Case.

Among the transactions advised by SORAINEN in the period under review were

top 3 M&A deals in Lithuania: sale of part of Ukio Bankas to Siauliu Bankas for which SORAINEN was sole adviser on the largest (EUR 782 million) and most complex acquisition deal in the Baltics in the last five years; Technopolis acquiring a complex of business centres for EUR 61 million; and Clement Power Venture acquiring Kaunas Heat and Power Plant for EUR 29 million;

the largest deal in Estonia: Baltic Cruises obtaining a stake in Tallink Grupp for EUR 116.6 million – the only M&A transaction on capital markets in the Baltics in the last 12 months, and
the largest deal in Latvia: Portek International acquiring an 80% stake in Riga Universal Terminal for approx EUR 21 million.

According to the Bloomberg report, on a global level M&A volume in the fourth quarter of 2013 fell 27.8%, but still the overall volume for the year increased 4%. The financial sector was the most active in terms of M&A in 2013, while the communications industry exhibited the largest growth by deal volume year-on-year, up nearly 42% from 2012.

"Motivation to expand business in neighbouring markets has returned. More companies looking for potential targets in the Baltics indicates positive expectations for development in the region. In general, after the recession last year brought more activity in M&A transactions and currently we already see many deals in the pipeline for the upcoming months," comments Toomas Prangli, regional co-head of the SORAINEN Corporate and M&A Team.