Last night, the most outstanding transactions carried out in the Baltics during the period 1 January 2021 – 31 March 2022 were awarded at the annual Baltic M&A and Private Equity Forum in Tallinn. The award winners are Livonia selling Santa Monica Networks and acquiring CSUB, Wise’s debut on London Stock Exchange, Bolt’s impressive fundraising rounds as well as Fortum’s sale of its Baltic business.
Here is an overview of the winning deals:
- Baltic M&A Deal of the Year – Partners Group Holding’s acquisition of Fortum’s Baltic district heating business. A global private markets firm Partners Group Holding acquired Fortum’s district heating business in five Baltic cities. At the time of signing, the 100% enterprise value was EUR 800 million. At the time of closing, the total consideration of the sale amounted to approximately EUR 710 million.
- Baltic Private Equity Deal of the Year – Livonia Partners selling majority stake in Santa Monica Networks to LMT. Livonia Partners, along with the minority shareholders in Santa Monica Networks, a networking and IT security solutions provider in Latvia and Lithuania, signed an agreement to sell their shares in Santa Monica Networks to Latvijas Mobilais Telefons (LMT). LMT now owns 100% of Santa Monica Networks.
- Outbound Deal from the Baltics – Livonia Partners’ acquisition of majority stake in CSUB from the founders and financial investors. Livonia Partners acquired a majority stake in CSUB, a Norway-based developer of composite solutions for the subsea, offshore, aquaculture, renewables, and civil engineering industries. The company’s management team retained a significant equity stake.
- Baltic Public Offering of the Year – the debut of Wise on the London Stock Exchange. Wise, a London-based money transfer firm founded by Estonians, began trading on the London Stock Exchange’s main market through a direct listing. With the valuation of EUR 9.3 billion, Wise emerged as London’s biggest tech company by market capitalisation.
- Baltic Fundraiser of the Year – Bolt Technology raised EUR 1.25 billion. Bolt Technology raised the total amount of EUR 1.25 billion in 3 funding rounds. The last round was the largest in both Bolt’s and the Baltic history, raising Bolt’s value to EUR 7.4 billion. This was the first time the Baltic Fundraiser of the Year award was announced as an independent award category.
The winners were selected by an independent pan-Baltic jury:
- Kadri Lindpere, Estonian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association
- Meelis Kitsing, Estonian Business School
- Gerda Sakalauskaitė, Lithuanian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association
- Jūratė Aželionytė, European Investment Fund
- Kristīne Bērziņa, Latvian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association & Livonia Partners
- Lauris Balga, Superia Corporate Finance
The deals of the year are selected by a committee consisting of market professionals and experts. The committee selects the winning deals according to criteria such as the value of the deals and their strategic importance to the Baltic region; their level of complexity and innovation; their financing structure; ESG impact; and the involvement of professionals from the region. The deal period was 1 January 2021 – 31March 2022.
You can read more about previous years’ award-winners here: 2021, 2019, 2018.
Baltic M&A and Private Equity Forum
The Baltic M&A and Private Equity Forum 2022 was organised by Sorainen, in cooperation with Estonia’s leading business media house Äripäev and Estonian Private Equity And Venture Capital Association. The forum is organised annually in one of the three Baltic countries in partnership between Sorainen and the Baltic business media (Äripäev in Estonia, Verslo žinios in Lithuania and Dienas Bizness in Latvia) and the Baltic venture capital associations. Every year, the forum gathers over 200 participants from private equity, venture capital funds and investment banking, consultants, lawyers, as well as business executives and owners from the Baltics and beyond. This year, the forum was held on 7 April.