Mergermarket M&A Forum - Nordics 2022
The must-attend event for the Nordic M&A community returns to Stockholm in March!
The Brewery, Stockholm
Agenda
Coffee & Networking
Keynote presentation – Macroeconomic and geopolitical outlook
This keynote presentation will review how the Nordic countries have fared during and after the pandemic. How have government stimulus programmes supported businesses? What has been the knock-on impact of this been on M&A or distressed deals?
Panel – Global M&A outlook and deal origination
The Nordic region has seen healthy M&A activity recently, experiencing an eye-watering EUR 120.3bn across 1,165 deals YTD21. This represents a 98.5% value increase and a 4.9% volume increase compared to FY20, according to Dealogic data. Market sentiment is optimistic and there are no indications of significant changes to market conditions in the short-term. However, many in the market are beginning to prepare for a correction in the market in the longer term.
Break and networking
Fireside chat – Impactful infrastructure investing
Infrastructure investments have traditionally offered long-term, stable returns. However, the climate crisis is likely to have a great impact of the sector, but also gives way to opportunities for infrastructure companies to be leaders in the energy transition.
Panel – Healthcare and biotech sector focus
Changing demographics and the impact of the Covid-19 virus have created opportunities in digital health and biotech in the Nordics. Private equity firms are investing in the space at a rapid pace, but what are the challenges in deal origination, exit valuations and the buyer opportunities for assets?
Lunch
Stream B: ESG | Panel - Energy transition
This panel will discuss the ongoing impact of the energy transition, which is leading businesses to move away from current energy systems to a more low carbon options, is creating transformation at a heady pace as business models change how they fundamentally operate. This transformation is fuelling M&A and divestments as businesses rapidly seek to respond to changes and 'future proof' operations.
Stream A: Innovation | Fireside chat – Surge of tech buyouts
The rise of private tech companies acquiring smaller startups, armed with abundant fundraising and growth ambitions, as well as the mega fundraising rounds by tech funds in seen 2021 has bolstered valuations and buyout activity in the tech space. This panel will discuss whether valuations will reach a ceiling and the pipeline for tech buyouts in the Nordics.
Stream A: Innovation | Fireside chat – Payments & FinTech focus
At the start of last year, M&A in the FinTech sector was expected to soar. However, the pandemic and reduced economic activity led to subdued economic activity leading some FinTechs to reassess growth priorities. This panel will review the opportunities and challenges in the FinTech and payments space as well as deal pipelines and origination.
Chair’s closing remarks & networking drinks
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Kasper heads market intelligence and new ventures at ION Analytics, identifying growth opportunities, both through partnerships and inorganic investments. He is also the deputy director with the Diligence domain at ION Analytics, focused on the strategy and development of key capabilities across investigative diligence, risk screening, regulatory analysis and cybersecurity.
Mattias Persson is chief economist and global head of Swedbank macro analysis. Swedbank macro analysis is responsible for all global, regional and national macro analysis at Swedbank.
Mattias started at Swedbank Macroanalysis 2020 and most recently came from the Debt Office, where he was chief economist and head of the department for economic analysis. Most recently, he was also head of the Debt Management Department at the Debt Office. Prior to that, he was Head of Global Borrowing at Nordea and Head of Financial Stability at the Riksbank of Sweden.
Mattias has a broad experience from macroeconomic and financial issues and has also participated and worked in international organizations such as the IMF, ECB and Bank for International Settlements.
Johan Bladh (Stockholm) joined Röko at the start in 2019 and as Deputy CEO he leads the origination and acquisition efforts for the company across all its active regions. Since Röko was founded they have completed 18 platform investments and a few add-ons. The companies have combined revenues of more than 300 MEUR. Johan has a background from private equity and management consulting and holds a BSc in Business and Administration from Stockholm School of Economics.
Alexander Bjärgård is Head of M&A, Corporate Development and co-founder of Storskogen, a company with a mission to acquire and operate profitable SMEs with strong market positions. Storskogen has in recent year’s expanded into the Nordic countries, the DACH region, the UK and Asia. At the end of 2021 Storskogen consisted of 105 business units, divided into 13 verticals and with total sales (proforma) of about SEK 23 billion.
Prior to Storskogen Alexander worked as an Investment Manager at Firm Factory Network, Head of Legal at Tradimus and Legal Associate at Mannheimer Swartling.
Alexander holds a Master of Laws from Uppsala University and a degree in International Relations, Macro Economics and Political Science from Boise State University.
Gustav Højmark-Jensen covers the Nordic M&A market across all sectors for Mergermarket. Before joining Mergermarket's Nordics team, he covered the European TMT sector with a focus on digital infrastructure and technology for another financial publication. Gustav is based in London.
Co-Managing Partner at Adelis Equity Partners, a mid-market private equity firm with approximately €2 billion in capital under management. Adelis’ focuses on being a growth partner for well-positioned Nordic companies with a focus on tech services & software, healthcare & life sciences and business services. Prior to joining Adelis, Rasmus worked as Investment Executive at Permira and as Project Leader at BCG.
Rasmus currently serves on the Board of Directors of Ropo Capital (Chairman), Puuilo, Dayton Group (Chairman), Valtti , SSI Diagnostica, Nordic Biosite and Renevo. Previously, he has been a Board member at Med Group (Chairman), NGI and QMG.
Rasmus holds a MBA (Baker Scholar) from Harvard Business School and MSc in industrial engineering and biotechnology (high distinction) from the Helsinki University of Technology.
Hans F. Arstad (London) joined KKR in 2014 and leads the European private equity activities across the Nordic region. Mr. Arstad has been involved in the investments in Sector Alarm, Söderberg & Partners, Välinge, iGas, Ambea, Mehilainen, Visma, Avida and Ocean Yield. Prior to joining KKR, he worked for McKinsey & Company. Mr. Arstad holds a M.Sc. in Finance and a B.Sc. in Business Administration from Norwegian School of Economics.
Johan joined CapMan Buyout in 2016 as a partner and was in 2017 designated co-managing partner. He has extensive experience from Nordic mid-cap private equity investments. Prior to joining CapMan, Johan spent ten years as an investment professional with Ratos, where his main responsibilities included assessment and completion of numerous acquisitions and active management of several of Ratos’ investments in various sectors. At Ratos, Johan was responsible for one fourth of the investment organization and a member of the group following-up new investment opportunities on a weekly basis. Prior to Ratos, Johan served as management consultant at Arthur D. Little, where his focus was strategy development and operational improvement projects in a wide variety of industries internationally.
Kasper heads market intelligence and new ventures at ION Analytics, identifying growth opportunities, both through partnerships and inorganic investments. He is also the deputy director with the Diligence domain at ION Analytics, focused on the strategy and development of key capabilities across investigative diligence, risk screening, regulatory analysis and cybersecurity.
Anders Malmström works with M&A, real estate transactions, private equity and general corporate matters. He has a large experience in Swedish and multi-jurisdictional transactions and fund structuring.
Anders is chairman of the board at DLA Piper Sweden KB, and heads the DLA Pipers corporate group in Sweden as well as in the Nordics.
Anders is also chairman of the board of Ramundberget Alpina AB, Digital Inn AB, Good To Great Tennis AB and board member of KL Fastighet AB.
Ilkka Liljeroos has a broad corporate practice based on domestic and international M&A and private equity transactions. During his career, he has advised numerous Finnish and international corporations, private equity investors in complex acquisitions, divestments and related shareholders’ and joint venture agreements.
In addition to his corporate practice, Ilkka has extensive experience of a wide variety of finance work, including syndicated loans, acquisition finance, real estate finance, trade finance and ECA finance.
Siren has extensive experience with mergers and acquisitions (M&A), equity transactions and re-organizations, assisting Norwegian and international companies (listed and non-listed) with legal advice, especially within the renewable energy sector and in infrastructure transactions.
She also assists in general with energy law and corporate law advice to clients and has a great deal of experience as project leader in complex transactions, both national and international. Siren also has experience from VAT advice in Deloitte.
Marianne Ramel is experienced in a broad range of debt and equity finance transactions, particularly in project finance (including public-private partnership), real estate finance and acquisition finance. Marianne has represented a wide range of finance providers (including sovereigns) and borrowers. Marianne is also active within the firm’s Corporate group.
Marianne is head of the China desk in Sweden, and is experienced in cross-border transactions, with a particular emphasis on the Chinese market. Having worked and studied in various periods in China since 1988, Marianne has given advice on some of the largest foreign investments in China, as well as on outbound Chinese investments. Marianne advises Nordic companies in achieving their strategic and commercial plans in China, as well as Chinese companies investing in the Nordic region.
Harri Halonen has 11 years of experience in infrastructure investment and asset management within international roles. He has been with CapMan since 2017 when he joined to help establish the infrastructure business, based out of Stockholm.
Before joining CapMan Halonen was a Director at Brunswick Real Estate in Stockholm where he investigated real estate and infrastructure opportunities for the group. Prior to this he helped establish the Infrastructure Investments platform at Swiss Life Asset Managers. While there, the team invested c EUR 1 billion and Halonen was involved in 9 direct investments across OECD countries. Before this Halonen worked at Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets in London, managing telecommunication assets and participating in various transactions across a wider range of asset classes.
Halonen studied business management at King’s College, University of London where he graduated with 1st class honours and was a recipient of an award of excellence for his grades and contribution to the college.
Anna Elmfeldt leads MAM Real Assets’ business in the Nordic and Baltic countries. Anna is responsible for identifying new investment opportunities, stakeholder engagements, and the active management of MAM’s portfolio in the region.
Before joining Macquarie in 2019, Anna was Head of Energy, Utilities and Resources at PwC, with the responsibility to market, sell and grow services to its clients in the industry and manage the deal activities in the sector. She started her career in investment banking at ICECAPITAL Securities. Anna is also one of the founders of Kraftkvinnorna, a network to promote and attract women to the energy and utility industry.
Daniel Sachs is the founder and CEO of P Capital Partners, a leading private credit investor in Northern Europe. Sachs is also a Global Board member of the Open Society Foundation (OSF) as well as Chairman of the OSF Investment Committee.
Sachs has held a number of managerial roles and board positions in public as well as private companies throughout Europe. He is a member of the Swedish government’s National Innovation Council and a council member of the European Council on Foreign Relations.
Through the Daniel Sachs Foundation, he is engaged in openness, culture, diversity and democratic development. He is a founder of Apolitical Academy and is active in the arts, particularly film production, through Kärnfilm, a film production company that he co-founded.
Sachs holds an MBA from the Stockholm School of Economics and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Ismail Afara is part of the Infrastructure business unit of Partners Group, based in Zug, with experience in telecommunications, transport, social infrastructure and energy. He currently sits in the Board of Directors of atNorth and previously was a Board Observer for Covage. He has been with Partners Group since 2016. Prior to joining Partners Group, he worked at Credit Suisse in their investment banking division and holds a Masters in Finance degree from Imperial College London, UK
Gustav Højmark-Jensen covers the Nordic M&A market across all sectors for Mergermarket. Before joining Mergermarket's Nordics team, he covered the European TMT sector with a focus on digital infrastructure and technology for another financial publication. Gustav is based in London.
CEO at MSC Nordics, a boutique strategy consultancy supporting Nordic biotech companies with attracting investment and striking strategic partnerships. Julia has experience from working with business development, strategy and valuation and in the life science industry, both in operational, consultancy and investment settings. She has co-founded two venture companies, one within pharmaceutical development and one in robotics and evaluated investment opportunities at Stockholm-based private investment company. Her educational background combines a B. Sc in biotechnology and an M. Sc in business development and entrepreneurship from Chalmers University of Technology.
Roger has wide ranging experience in the business of life science spanning over a decade across the strategy consulting, investment banking and venture capital industries. Prior to his business career, Roger completed his academic training in biochemistry at Oxford University before specialising in oncology during his doctoral work at Cambridge’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB).
Most recently, Roger was senior pharmaceutical and biotechnology analyst at Liberum, an investment bank in London where he gained extensive public market experience. Prior to Liberum, Roger worked for a major European life science venture firm including responsibility for deal sourcing and due diligence as well as sitting on the boards of multiple portfolio companies.
At Hadean, Roger is based in the Stockholm office and is particularly focused on investments in the therapeutics space.
Partner of HealthCap. Prior to joining HealthCap in 1997, Mr. Lindstrand gained over 10 years of investment banking experience, mainly with ABB Aros Securities in Sweden. There he gained experience in fields ranging from securitisation to corporate finance advisory work. In his last position with ABB Aros Securities, as a Vice President in the firm´s corporate finance department, he specialised in the areas of merger transactions, capital market transactions, financial derivatives and equity incentive programs. Mr. Lindstrand received his M. Sc. in Engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology of Stockholm.
Pia Erkinheimo works at The Finnish Climate Fund as a member of the executive team, being responsible for dealflow and customer relationships. Her background is from companies like Nordea, Nokia and Capgemini, where she has been working with Nordic VCs, corporate strategy and open innovation and M&A. The European Commission has benefitted from her S&T&I experience for +15 years as innovation expert and jury member e.g., Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe, EIC Accelerator and as a Rapporteur for OISPG, Open Innovation Strategy and Policy Group. She has also been advising G7 in AI, Big Data and Future of Work.
Besides that, she is a member of the board at the Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland, and is or has been involved in half a dozen growth companies either as an investor, board member or member of the executive team. She is a member of FiBAN, Finnish Business Angels Network where she was also a member of the board in 2018. Pia is a co-founder of Women in Tech Finland, network of companies standing for diversity and inclusion.
Harri Halonen has 11 years of experience in infrastructure investment and asset management within international roles. He has been with CapMan since 2017 when he joined to help establish the infrastructure business, based out of Stockholm.
Before joining CapMan Halonen was a Director at Brunswick Real Estate in Stockholm where he investigated real estate and infrastructure opportunities for the group. Prior to this he helped establish the Infrastructure Investments platform at Swiss Life Asset Managers. While there, the team invested c EUR 1 billion and Halonen was involved in 9 direct investments across OECD countries. Before this Halonen worked at Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets in London, managing telecommunication assets and participating in various transactions across a wider range of asset classes.
Halonen studied business management at King’s College, University of London where he graduated with 1st class honours and was a recipient of an award of excellence for his grades and contribution to the college.
Björn Larsson joined Axcel in 2019 as a Partner working from the Stockholm office and a member of the Investment Committee.
Björn Larsson has a broad background within investments and management in the private equity industry, most recently as CFO of AniCura, a veterinary business, which was named Nordic private equity “deal of the year” when it was sold in 2018. Björn previously worked with the international private equity firm The Riverside Company and KPMG Transaction Services.
Educational background
Björn Larsson holds an MSc in Economics from the Stockholm School of Economics in Sweden, including studies at the National University of Singapore. Björn is also a CFA charterholder.
Axcel companies
AddPro, VetGruppen
Sector focus
Industrials, IT & Technology
Tomas Haglund-Flemström is a pioneer within sustainable business. He has spent 15 years as a business strategy advisor at Accenture where he helped build the global sustainability practice with primary responsibilities in Circular Economy and the Nordic regional market. Tomas has through more than 80 strategy assignments at multinational companies built up a vast experience of how to combine sustainable business with growth and profitability. He has first hand seen some of the finance sector constraints, that management teams face, to make a faster pivot to more sustainable business. He last year joined the investment company Formica Capital to help fund the right impactful solutions with the right active ownership to make a difference and to positively influence the rest of the industry.
Michael Hansen is a seasoned entrepreneur and startup investor. In 2015, he co-founded Capcito, the Stockholm-based pioneer in data-driven business financing. The company was recently acquired by Fortnox, Sweden’s leading accounting platform with 430,000 customers. The deal also comprised Capcito’s sibling company Monto, a platform that gives fintech companies and banks access to real-time financial data and credit decisioning tools.
As the new EVP for Fortnox business area Money (Pengar), Michael leads Fortnox’ efforts to grow access to innovative, embedded SME financing services.
Partner & Head of Transactions at early stage venture capital fund Wellstreet, co-founder of legal tech company Justic, advisor to AI Sweden and board member at Stockholm AI. Previously General Counsel & Head of Public Affairs at AI company Peltarion and M&A lawyer at leading Nordic business law firm Mannheimer Swartling.
Kasper heads market intelligence and new ventures at ION Analytics, identifying growth opportunities, both through partnerships and inorganic investments. He is also the deputy director with the Diligence domain at ION Analytics, focused on the strategy and development of key capabilities across investigative diligence, risk screening, regulatory analysis and cybersecurity.
As Sales Manager for the Nordic and Benelux markets, Mark is focused on empowering professionals to leverage technology with complete control and confidence.
Including 6 years with Intralinks, he has 24 years of experience within financial print, Virtual Data Rooms and other enterprise software companies.
Hans assumed the position as Co-Head Transactional Risk for Europe, Middle East & Africa alongside leading the Nordics Private Equity and M&A practice in connection with the formation of the merged Marsh JLT Specialty in 2019 (subsequently Marsh Specialty) and is based in Stockholm. Hans was formerly a Senior Partner with legacy JLT’s Northern M&A team and joined legacy JLT in 2012 to primarily build the successful M&A practice. Prior to joining JLT, Hans was a Senior Group Legal counsel for the telecoms blue chip corporate Ericsson for c. five years doing global M&A and financing work for Ericsson and a board member of the insurance and reinsurance captives of Ericsson and before that Hans was a practicing transaction lawyer for a number of years with the Swedish magic circle firm Mannheimer Swartling in Stockholm and Allen & Overy in London.
Magnus leads the Transactional Risk insurance practice in the Nordics and is based in Stockholm, Sweden. Prior to the formation of the merged Marsh JLT Specialty in 2019 (subsequently Marsh Specialty), Magnus was a Partner with legacy JLT’s Northern Europe M&A team after +7 years at a leading Swedish law firm advising clients in connection with M&A and corporate transactions and as in-house corporate legal counsel at blue chip multinational Husqvarna Group.
Christian Carneborn leads the Tax Insurance practice in the Nordics and is based in Stockholm, Sweden. He joined Marsh in January 2021 from the Swedish “Decacorn” Klarna where he was the Head of Tax Strategy and has prior to that worked with M&A and International Tax matters at the Big 4, Hannes Snellman, Electrolux and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton in New York. Christian has advised on, and managed, a multitude of complex domestic and cross-border transactions in Europe, Middle-East, Asia, and the Americas and is now applying his experience and expertise to growing the tax insurance market in the Nordics. He also holds a LL.M from Stockholm University as well as a LL.M in International Taxation from New York University (class of 2015) and is a prolific writer who has published several articles, legal commentaries, and a book on Swedish and international tax matters.
Johan is a Partner focusing on private equity. Johan has more than 10 years of professional experience in private equity. Prior to joining Trill Impact, he spent about nine years at Nordic Capital, most recently as an Investment Director. He has further experience as an Investment Banking Analyst at Goldman Sachs, London, and he has also been a board member of a number of private companies.
Johan is currently a board member of the following Trill Impact portfolio companies: Nordomatic; ILT Education; and European ID Security.
Johan holds a M.Sc. in Economics and Business Administration from the Stockholm School of Economics.