Awards
The Baltic M&A and Private Equity Awards are an integral part of the Baltic M&A and Private Equity Forum. This year, all winners will be announced during the awards event, which will be held on April 16th in Vilnius (La Boheme, Šv. Ignoto str. 4), immediately following the forum's program.
This celebration of the achievements of the Baltic M&A industry has been a tradition for nine years now. The M&A, private equity, and venture capital transactions of the year are selected by a committee consisting of market professionals and experts. The committee selects the winning deals based on criteria such as the strategic importance of the deal for the Baltic market, the value of the deal, the complexity and/or innovative nature of the deal, the ESG impact of the deal, and the involvement of Baltic stakeholders.
The awards cover the period from February 18, 2023, to December 31, 2023. All deals must have been closed during this period.
This year the awards cover three categories:
- Baltic M&A Deal of the Year
- Baltic Private Equity and Venture Capital Deal of the Year
- Outbound Deal from the Baltics
Awards Committee:
- Edgars Pīgoznis, LVCA Board member and Glücksburg Investment Partner (Latvia)
- Greta Mieliauskaitė, Managing Director at LTVCA (Lithuania)
- Julijus Grigaliunas, Managing Partner at Porta Finance (Lithuania)
- Kadri Lindpere, Managing Director at EstVCA (Estonia)
- Meelis Kitsing, the Rector of and Professor of Political Economy at the Estonian Business School (Estonia)
- Olga Fedjakina, Partner and Board Member at ZGI Capital (Latvia)
NOMINEES FOR THE BALTIC M&A AND PRIVATE EQUITY AWARDS 2024
Nominees for the Baltic M&A Deal of the Year
1. Maag Grupp acquisition of HKScan's Baltic businesses
Estonian food company Maag Grupp has agreed to acquire HKScan Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian subsidiaries. The Baltic subsidiaries are producing, marketing and selling pork, beef and poultry products, and are known from consumer brands like Rakvere, Tallegg, Rigas Miesnieks, Jelgava and Klaipėdos maistas.
The parties agreed for a debt-free purchase price of EUR 90m, EUR 20m of which is conditional on the performance of business in the following years. Of the EUR 70m fixed purchase price, EUR 55m was paid at the closing of the transaction and the remainder will be paid over the next three years.
Roland Lepp, chairman of the supervisory board of Maag Group, said the acquisition of HK Scan’s Baltic businesses will help the company strengthen its position in the Baltic market. “It will also provide better food security in turbulent times,” he added.
Deal value (mEUR): 90
2. Merger of the retail businesses of INVL and Šiaulių bankas
Šiaulių Bankas, the country’s largest bank with Lithuanian capital, and Invalda INVL, the leading asset management group in the Baltics, have agreed to merge a part of their retail businesses.
After the closing of the transaction, the Šiaulių Bankas group, in addition to the financial services it already offered, started to manage second-and third-pillar pension funds and mutual funds in Lithuania and provide life insurance services throughout the Baltic countries.
The equity value of the transaction is EUR 41.8m. Šiaulių Bankas AB has issued 32,619,437 new shares at an offer price of EUR 0.645 per share (a premium of 5% over the bank’s share price on the Nasdaq Vilnius exchange as of 22 November 2022) to Invalda INVL, which has obtained 9.39% of the share capital of Šiaulių Bankas.
Deal value (mEUR): 41.8
3. Ignitis Renewables acquisition of up to 300 MW onshore wind development project in Lithuania from E Energija
Ignitis Grupe AB, through its subsidiary Ignitis Renewables UAB, has agreed with E energija to acquire its two companies developing an onshore wind farm in Kelmė district.
The wind power park will have a capacity of up to 300 megawatts (MW). The planned start of electricity production is in 2025. Ignitis Renewables will take care of the financing, construction and operation of the wind farm.
“This is another important step in expanding our portfolio of wind farm projects in Lithuania and increasing our green generation capacity. We are moving rapidly towards the strategic goal of the entire Ignitis Group to increase green generation and reach 4–5 GW of installed capacity by 2030,” says Thierry Aelens, CEO at Ignitis Renewables.
The terms of the deal were undisclosed
Deal value (mEUR): N/A
4. Aktiva Finance Group acquisition of Intrum's Baltic businesses
Aktiva Finance Group, the Estonia based purchaser of debt portfolios and payables, agreed to acquire three companies, namely Intrum Latvia SIA, Intrum Estonia AS and Intrum Lithuania UAB from Intrum AB, which provide debt collection and surveillance, credit information and management services.
The cash consideration for the servicing platforms and investment portfolios of Intrum Baltic subsidiaries was EUR 30m.
Deal value (mEUR): 30
Nominees for the Baltic Private Equity/Venture Capital Deal of the Year
1. Skeleton Technologies raising EUR 108m from top investors including Siemens & Marubeni
Skeleton Technologies OU, the Estonia based developer of ultracapacitors and provider of energy storage solutions has closed a EUR 108m funding round that includes Siemens Financial Services (SFS), Marubeni Corporation and other investors. This funding will accelerate the development of next-generation products and finance the manufacturing expansion for supercapacitors and the company’s new high-power battery technology – the SuperBattery.
Skeleton Technologies and Marubeni Corporation have announced a strengthening of their long-term partnership with a significant investment from the Japanese conglomerate in Skeleton. A few months later, Existing investors, including Marubeni Corporation, have also contributed to this investment round.
Support from Siemens and Marubeni, two major industrial giants in Europe and Asia fuels next phase of Skeleton Technologies growth and innovation.
Deal value (mEUR): 108
2. PVcase raising EUR 89 million in a round led by Highland Europe, Energize Ventures and Elephant
PVcase, Lithuanian based solar project design software company, secured a joint investment of USD 100m (EUR 89m) in a round led by investment funds Highland Europe, Energize Ventures and existing investor Elephant.
All three investment funds said they invested in PVcase because its strong financial performance has positioned it to acquire other software platforms to pursue its long-term goal of being a one-stop solution for the solar engineering community.
Deal value (mEUR): 89
3. Elcogen securing a EUR 45 million strategic investment from a member of HD Hyundai Group, Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering
Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering, a member of HD Hyundai Group, invested EUR 45m in Elcogen’s Solid Oxide technology to further deepen the collaboration on emission-free power generation systems as well as green hydrogen production.
Enn Õunpuu, CEO of Elcogen, said: “We are delighted that HD Hyundai has built upon our strategic partnership to invest directly into Elcogen, recognising the key role our proprietary Solid Oxide technology will have in leading the world to net zero, providing a clear and external validation of Elcogen.”
Deal value (mEUR): 45
Nominees for the Outbound Deal from the Baltics
1. PVcase acquisition of Anderson Optimization
PVcase, the global leader in solar project design software, acquired Anderson Optimization, the world’s most popular solar siting software platform.
Until now, solar developers have used separate software platforms to handle different tasks in the process of designing solar projects. The integration of PVcase and Anderson Optimization software products into one platform cuts data risk and improves the entire development process.
The terms of the deal were undisclosed.
Deal value: N/A
2. INVL Baltic Sea Growth Fund and Eco Baltia acquisition of 70% of Poland’s largest PVC recycler Metal-Plast
INVL Baltic Sea Growth Fund, the leading private equity fund in the Baltics and its portfolio company Eco Baltia, the largest waste management and recycling group in the Baltics, agreed to acquire a 70% stake in the largest Polish PVC windows recycler, Metal-Plast.
Metal-Plast, based in Polish province of Lower Silesia, has an annual turnover of EUR 34m and employs 200 people. Metal-Plast’s current recycling capacity is 29,000 tonnes per year. One tonne of recycled PVC saves two tonnes of CO2 emissions, which has a significant and positive impact towards the European Union’s climate neutrality targets.
The terms of the deal were undisclosed.
Deal value: N/A
3. BaltCap and co-investors acquisition of Xpediator
BaltCap, the largest private equity fund manager in the Baltics, with co-investors, acquired Xpediator, a fast-growing international freight management company, after a successful bid made in April. Xpediator provides freight-forwarding, logistics, and transport support solutions in the CEE and the UK under the Delamode brand. The consortium aims to further boost the company’s core freight-forwarding offers in Europe and internationally, as well as develop UK-based businesses.
This transaction is remarkable for the Baltics, as it is the first take-private transaction by a Baltic investor on the London Stock Exchange.
The terms of the deal were undisclosed.
Deal value: N/A
4. Nortal acquisition of Bulgaria's Questers
Estonia-based software developer Nortal has acquired distributed software firm Questers Global Group Ltd a from UK-listed TPXimpact Holdings for GBP 7.5m (EUR 8.7m) in cash, to boost its presence in the US and UK markets.
Sofia-based Questers, which employs over 300 staff, will be merged into Nortal’s outsourcing and team augmentation business known as pwrteams, broadening its access to top-tier talent and building cross-border dedicated IT and engineering teams.
Deal value (mEUR): 8.7