Sorainen partner Toomas Prangli tops Mergermarket’s CEE 2016 legal adviser table by number of deals advised.

After several years of a sluggish market, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in Estonia hit a record deal volume and value in 2016. According to comments given to Estonian business daily Äripäev by Toomas Prangli, co-managing partner of Sorainen, the activity level of the Estonian M&A market can be compared to the pre-crisis level, with total deal value jumping to EUR 409 million in 2016 from EUR 71 million in 2015 and deal volume to EUR 31 million from just EUR 13 million.

“I would be cautious in calling it a boom, but the activity level looks similar to the years of 2006-2008,” said Prangli. He added that 2017 promises to be as active as the previous year, unless a major macroeconomic crisis occurs.

Recently, Mergermarket published a ranking of 2016’s most prolific individual CEE legal advisers, with Toomas Prangli topping the chart of CEE lawyers with 10 deals.

The top 15 most prolific individual CEE legal advisers according to Mergermarket include:

Rank Name Current Firm No. of Deals
1 Toomas Prangli Sorainen 10
2 Evgeny Zelensky Herbert Smith Freehills 7
3 Nick Fletcher Clifford Chance LLP 6
4 Pawel Zdort Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP 6
5 Agnieszka Janicka Clifford Chance LLP 6
6 Sven Papp Ellex 6
7 Petr Precechtel BBH, advokatni kancelar. s.r.o 6
8 Pawel Rymarz Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP 5
9 Robert Irving Dentons 5
10 Marcin Studniarek White & Case LLP 5
11 Aneta Hajska White & Case LLP 5
12 Andrei Dontsov White & Case LLP 5
13 Risto Vahimets Ellex 5
14 Markus Piuk Schoenherr Rechtsanwaelte GmbH 5
15 Grigory Gadzhiev Linklaters 4

Source: Mergermarket (The above table includes qualifying M&A deals only, organised by volume).

Mergermarket recently also announced their latest M&A legal experts’ ratings for 2016. According to these ratings, Sorainen has risen seven positions since last year to eighth position in the CEE region.