Category: Estonia

Walless has advised the Tilgmann Group on the sale of Nordic Label and Data Print to Waterland Private Equity portfolio company Asteria. Helsinki-based Dittmar & Indrenius also advised Tilgmann, while Cobalt and Finnish law firm Krogerus advised the Asteria Group.

According to Walless, Nordic Label, its subsidiary Estonian Label House, and Data Print are “leading label manufacturers in Estonia and Finland.”

The Tilgmann Group is a business operating in Northern Europe focusing on packaging materials.

The Asteria Labels and Packaging Group is a Belgium-based international group active in the production of a wide range of printed packaging materials.

The Walless team was led by Partner Karl-Erich Trisberg.

Cobalt’s team included Estonia-based Partners Martin Simovart and Marina Kotkas, Senior Associates Liina Saaremets and Tonu Kolts, Associate Kerli Paasoja, and Assistant Lawyers Liis Leedo, Mari Teder, and Markus Laja.

Rask Attorney Keidi Koiv has been appointed Co-Head of the firm’s Public Procurement practice.

Koiv has been with the firm since 2019. Before that, she was a Lawyer with the Evelin Jogar Law Office, between 2016 and 2019. Koiv also worked as an Adviser of the Development Support Department at the Estonian Agricultural Registers and Information Board. She is a graduate of Law from the University of Tartu.

According to Rask, Koiv has “extensive experience as a consultant to both contracting authorities and tenderers, including as a private entrepreneur assisting state authorities and applicants on various public procurement topics and in drafting EU-funded projects.”

“Keidi’s outstanding work at Rask is evidenced by satisfied customers, smoothly organized public procurement procedures, as well as significant court cases, won for our clients with Keidi’s participation,” commented Rask Partner Tarmo Peterson.

Sorainen has advised financial automation platform Aurelia on raising USD 3 million in a seed funding round led by Blossom Capital.

According to Sorainen, Aurelia is looking to launch its beta platform in the UK, Romania, Estonia, and Germany before the end of the year, and will use the funding to further develop its features and expand the team.

Founded by a former Wise and JP Morgan team of engineers and developers, Aurelia offers businesses automated tasks across third-party financial apps and services on a single platform. According to Sorainen, “Aurelia has been designed to help relieve the financial admin burden faced by small businesses across Europe.”

Angel investors included Guillaume Pousaz, through his Zinal Growth investment vehicle, and Erez Mathan.

“We see lots of fintech apps and banks that try to capture everything a business has, but many small businesses aren’t keen on moving their company’s financial life into a new product,” commented Aurelia’s Founder Sebastian Trif. “With Aurelia, we allow people to bring together the software and tools they are using already, give them an overview of what’s happening across these different platforms, and start automating on top of it.”

“As a small business owner ourselves, we know firsthand how painful and broken it is for SMEs to manage their finances and accounts,” Blossom Capital Founder Ophelia Brown said. “After searching for years for the right solution, we committed to Aurelia on the spot.”

The Sorainen team was led by Senior Associate Mirell Prosa and included Partner Toomas Prangli and Senior Associate Triin Ploomipuu.

Eversheds Sutherland has advised Atos International on the acquisition of Ideal Product Data.

Ideal Product Data Oy’s subsidiaries in Estonia and Sweden as well as the Swedish company’s subsidiaries in Norway and Denmark were also transferred in the transaction.

Atos International B.V. is a group company of Atos SE, which is listed on the Paris stock exchange. Atos is a digital services provider offering customized solutions in the areas of cybersecurity, cloud services, and high-performance computing. Ideal Product Data Oy provides consultancy, integration, software, and maintenance services to the manufacturing industry.

Eversheds Sutherland’s team included Partners Hannu Rintala, Johan Wesander, and Anu Mattila, Specialist Counsel Jarkko Hankaa, and Associates Else Leppanen, Petra Nieminen, and Linda Miettinen.

Eversheds Sutherland did not reply to our inquiry on the matter.

Ellex has advised CHB Kindlustusmaakler owners Andry Saarm and Priit Helm on the sale of their Estonian brokerage company to international insurance broker Howden. Grant Thornton reportedly advised Howden.

According to Ellex, “CHB’s acquisition marks Howden’s entry into the Baltic region, where it plans to build the business by partnering with culturally aligned companies that embed specialisms across the distribution network. Under the terms of the agreement, Andry Saarm, CHB chairman of the board, and CHB CEO Priit Helm will continue to operate the company.”

According to the firm, “until the end of 2021, the company will operate in parallel under the CHB and Howden brands and will switch to the Howden Estonia brand from 2022.”

The Ellex team was led by Partner Risto Vahimets.

Fort has advised real estate development companies Arco Vara, Eften Capital, East Capital Real Estate, Metro Capital, and Hepsor on submitting a complaint to the European Commission regarding the potentially unlawful state aid given to Porto Franco by the Estonian government. 

Porto Franco, with a total area of 150,000 square meters, is a multifunctional city block development project in Estonia. Following receiving a EUR 102 million syndicated loan from main lending partner EBRD and local lending partner Luminor Bank, Porto Franco was granted a bridge loan from the Estonian government in 2020. 

According to Fort Partner Kuldar-Jaan Torokoff, the real estate development companies aim “to draw attention to the problem as the state’s interference with the real estate development market is unfounded and distorts the latter.”

The Fort team consisted of Torokoff and Attorneys-at-Law Margus Koiva and Liina Kais.

Sorainen has advised US-headquartered Dynatrace on its acquisition of Estonia’s SpectX.

Dynatrace is a software intelligence technology company. SpectX is a high-speed parsing and data analytics company.

According to Sorainen, as a result of the transaction, Dynatrace will take over SpectX’s operations in Tallinn, Estonia. “With the acquisition of SpectX, Dynatrace will advance its Software Intelligence Platform’s observability and application security analytics capabilities even further.”

“Market-leading innovation is core to the Dynatrace culture, and we are always looking for ways to accelerate this and embrace exceptional talent to help us scale,” Dynatrace founder and CTO Bernd Greifeneder commented. “With SpectX, we are fulfilling both goals. Its advanced analytics solution fits seamlessly into our product roadmap, while its exceptionally talented team will extend our ability to help the world’s leading organizations accelerate digital innovation.”

Sorainen’s team included Partners Toomas Prangli and Piret Jesse, Counsels Piret Lappert, Lauri Liivat, Pirkko-Liis Harkmaa, Kaido Kunnapas, and Piibe Lehtsaar, and Associates Vladislav Leiri, Kadri Puu, Liisa Maria Kuuskmaa, and Oliver Kuusk.

Sorainen did not reply to our inquiry on the matter.

On August 19, 2021, CEE Legal Matters reported that Sorainen had advised Montonio on raising EUR 2.5 million from Tera Ventures, as well as ffVC, Superangel, Practica, 365.fintech, Startup Wise Guys, and a number of business angels. CEE In-House Matters spoke with Rasmus Oisma, Director at Montonio Finance, to learn more about the matter.

CEEIHM: Montonio recently secured a EUR 2.5 million investment. What are the funds intended for this time?

Rasmus: Our next major target is to start providing our services in Poland. We have a strong track record and incredible traction from the Baltic states. Our services are used by more than 1,400 web stores in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. A quarter of our native Estonian population used Montonio’s services within the first half of 2021. Now it’s time to take on even bigger markets.

Furthermore, we intend to be the one-stop-shop for e-commerce stores. Meaning that we want to provide our partner merchants with all the checkout services they might need. Achieving this requires a lot of development resources.

CEEIHM: What, in your opinion, makes Montonio attractive to investors?

Rasmus: I guess every investor has their own reasons, but it seems that they find our long-term vision attractive. The popularity of fintech and specifically BNPL companies has grown greatly during the last few years. Our checkout orchestration model definitely stands out in comparison to our competitors. Of course, our strong traction helps a lot as well.

And also the team – the core team has been working on Montonio for more than three years and we have been able to show remarkable success and traction. We have seen tougher times and the collaboration dynamic has grown into something significant.

CEEIHM: Has the investor lineup changed since the last year’s investment round and why?

Rasmus: The round was led by Tera Ventures with ffVC (US-Poland) and 365.fintech (Slovakia) joining in as new investors. There were other major reputable venture capital firms who were ready to make a commitment. However, we had to say no to quite a few of them.

Most of our previous investors participated in the round – Superangel, Practica Capital, Startup Wiseguys, and Jevgeni Kabanov (CPO of Bolt). There were other previous investors who wanted to pitch in, but we had to make some cuts in the investor lineup since the interest was nearly 3x the size of the round itself.

We had a few new angel investors participating in this round, specifically Markus Villig (the CEO of Bolt), Kair Kasper (co-founder of Klalu, ex-Pipedrive), and Sven Kirsimae (CTO of Rendin, ex-Pipedrive). The angel investors were included in the round for their know-how and connections in the startup world.

CEEIHM: What are Montonio’s next steps, following the investment?

Rasmus: The first step we have taken is growing our team. We expect to double the size of our development team. We are expanding our sales and operations significantly in Latvia and Lithuania. Furthermore, as Lithuania is the center of our compliance operations, we will start hiring additional legal/compliance personnel in Vilnius.

We intend to streamline our internal processes, by automating a lot of activities that currently need human involvement. Our goal is to keep our operational overheads as thin as possible, to be continuously able to provide lean and affordable services to our customers.

CEEIHM: What was Sorainen’s mandate on this deal?

Rasmus: Sorainen was our advisor for the whole process from the first term sheet review until the closing of the round. They helped us out with the contract drafting, legal negotiations, and the financial services regulatory side review in both Estonia and Lithuania. Our main point of contact was Mirell Prosa, with further assistance from Toomas Prangli, Robin Teever, and Vladislav Leiri. Jane Eespold and Liutauras Vasiliauskas helped us with the questions relating to financial services regulations.

Furthermore, Ieva Brimeriene and Asta Javinskaite from Trampoline Legal are assisting us with getting the necessary regulatory approvals from the Bank of Lithuania.

PwC Legal has advised Ensto Ensek on the sale of its Taevakivi industrial property to LHV Pension Funds.

According to the firm, Ensto Ensek develops and manufactures reliable and smart electrical equipment for electricity distribution networks and buildings.

LHV Pension Funds is an Estonian enterprise operating on the domestic market, with an active investment strategy in the allocation of pension savings.

The PwC Legal team included Partner Karin Marosov and Attorney-at-Law Rutt Vark.

PwC Legal did not respond to our inquiry on the matter.

Editor’s Note: After this article was published, TGS Baltic announced it had advised LHV Pension Funds on the acquisition. The firm’s team was led by Managing Partner Sander Karson and included Counsel Triinu Jarviste and Senior Associates Kart Raud and Merli Maesalu.

TGS Baltic has represented Bigbank subsidiary Ruutli Majad OU before the Estonian Competition Authority in merger control proceedings related to the acquisition of two agricultural holdings.

According to TGS Baltic, Ruutli Majad had previously acquired Abja Pold OU, engaged in cereal growing and grassland farming, and Abja Farmid OU’s enterprise, engaged in dairy farming.

According to a Ruutli Majad spokesperson, the Bigbank group has been involved in investing in the agricultural sector since 2020. “This experience has enabled getting to know the agricultural sector very well and, thus, entry into agricultural production to a larger extent is the next logical step.”

“We are glad that we have been able to assist the client in implementing their business plans by helping to solve the legal procedures necessary for finalizing the transaction as smoothly as possible,” commented TGS Baltic Counsel Katri Paas-Mohando.

TGS Baltic’s team included Paas-Mohando, Counsel Triinu Jarviste, and Lawyer Hanna Maria Kokla.