Mikael Thunved

Evli advised Avega Group on Tieto’s SEK 462 million voluntary public tender offer for all Avega’s shares. Avega is a leading business development and IT consultant based in Sweden. Tieto is a leading Nordic software and services company based in Finland. Avega has approximately 350 employees and its net sales totaled SEK 428 million in 2016. The acquisition will accelerate Tieto’s growth businesses and strengthen its footprint in the Swedish consulting-led market. The head of Evli Corporate Finance Mikael Thunved comments:“We were honoured to be trusted by the Board of Directors of Avega to advise on the voluntary public tender offer by Tieto. This transaction follows a series of M&A activity in the Nordic IT services field in recent years. We have witnessed several new emerging companies benefitting from growth pockets and service innovations seeking growth financing e.g. through IPOs or bonds. On the other hand, more established players are actively consolidating the market in the battle for clients, talent and market share. We feel that we were in an excellent position to advise the management, owners and Board of Directors of Avega, as we have been very active within the IT services market during recent years, both in M&A and financing. In addition to advising Avega - just to name a few - we have advised Gofore Plc in its IPO, Digia Plc in its rights issue, Nortal AS in its bond issue, Digia Plc in the demerger and subsequent IPO of Qt Group, Cybercom AB in the public tender offer by Viltor and Acando AB in its public tender offer for Connecta.”