Sweden facing prospect of Anglo-Saxon invasion
Richard Tromans reports on the merger fever that is beginning to spread to Sweden
November 15, 2000 at 07:03 PM
4 minute read
"The Swedish market, legally and economically, is completely different from five years ago."
So says Michael Frie, managing partner of Swedish firm Gedda & Ekdahl, which last month announced its merger with UK IT specialists Bird & Bird.
It took only three weeks for the next significant tie-up as national firm Pinsent Curtis, recoiling from its bruising attempt to merge its way into Germany last year, announced a formal alliance with medium tier firm Magnusson Wahlin.
Bird & Bird might have been
the first significant UK/Swedish merger, but all the signs are that the predatory interest that has so far this year focused on Germany and Italy is set to spread to one of continental Europe's leading centres for new technology business.
Linklaters is close to merging with its Swedish Alliance member, Lagerloff & Leman, with a formal integration pencilled in for 1 January.
Meanwhile, CMS Cameron McKenna is still looking for a new Swedish ally after losing Tisell & Co to the international legal arm of Ernst & Young this year while Osborne Clarke's OWA alliance is also looking for representation in the region. Other Big Five associated firms such as K-Legal are also in the market.
Summing up the urgency with which some UK firms feel about getting a presence in the country, one Osbornes' partner said: "What did I think when I heard about the Bird & Bird/Geddas merger? I thought, you bastards! We would have loved to have done that deal."
Frie says that many Swedish lawyers are worried about this new-found attention and are competing against each other for work like never before.
Add this to the recent movement of partners, and cross-border mergers and alliances between the Scandinavian law firms, and you have all the signs of a volatile and fast-growing legal market.
The apparent failure of the OM Group to take over the London Stock Exchange might have set back the country's international profile, but Sweden's economy is growing at 3%-4% a year and its IT companies are among the best in the world.
Although investment in the risky end of Scandinavian emerging technology companies has diminished, money is still pouring into Sweden and established technology companies such as Ericsson are expanding in Europe.
City analysts and lawyers could argue that Sweden is not where the real action is, and that it is just a sideshow for law firms that missed out on the development of Anglo-German practices. But its attractions are obvious for firms that focus on technology and media clients.
Another view could be that firms such as Bird & Bird and Pinsents, whose IT/IP practice has been one of the national firm's biggest success stories in recent years, know a good thing when they see one.
Jeremy Philips, the Pinsents partner who helped seal the alliance deal with Stockholm-based Magnussons, says both firms plan to develop a private equity practice in Sweden and will build on their corporate outsourcing practice between the UK and Sweden.
Name partner Per Magnusson added: "Private equity is an emerging market in Sweden but there are a lot of benefits to doing this work."
Magnusson also pointed out that given the growing business links between the UK and Sweden, it was simply common sense to tie up with Pinsents.
So which Swedish firm is next? UK firms looking for a Scandinavian partner have a lot of choice still, unlike in Germany.
One good candidate would be leading Swedish firm Vinge, which already has a London office.
But Karin Ulberstad, the London managing partner said the firm's position had always been to stay independent. But she adds: "We have to consider what is happening all around us."
Observers of the German legal scene circa 1999, will find such sentiments eerily familiar.
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