Pernod Ricard – Sale of local Nordic beverage brands to Hartwall

Pernod Ricard – Sale of local Nordic beverage brands to Hartwall

The team impresses clients with its ‘ability to find commercial solutions to complex problems.’

Chambers Europe

Our M&A practice is Finland’s largest, and our offering covers the full spectrum of M&A legal advisory services. International publications consistently rank us among the best in the country.

We are one of the top Nordic advisors in cross-border deals, measured by both volume and value of the transactions. Our highlights range from public and private mergers and acquisitions to record-setting funding rounds and cross-border advisory in special situations.

As your advisor, we aim to support your decision-making processes in a manner that creates the most value and allows you to reach your strategic goals. Our holistic approach to project management ensures that we are geared to execute and coordinate even the most complex transactions as your international lead counsel.  In due diligence, we combine efficient execution with our in-depth understanding of corporate, commercial and regulatory matters to serve to-the-point advice. Once at the negotiation table, we want to excel and find win-win solutions that enable the deal to happen.

Our services include:

  • Strategic M&A advice & defence
  • Acquisitions & divestments
  • Cross-border transactions
  • Structured auctions 
  • Buyouts
  • Carve-outs
  • Joint ventures
  • Public M&A

We put together the best possible team for each transaction. Thanks to our firm’s full-service offering, we can flexibly complement our core team with experts from our other practices, such as tax, finance or competition. With a strong focus on premium quality and sustainability, we are constantly developing our offering and expertise. 

Latest references

We acted as Finnish counsel to Pernod Ricard in the sale of a portfolio of local Nordic brands to Oy Hartwall Ab, an affiliate of the Danish group Royal Unibrew. Pernod Ricard is a worldwide leader in the spirits and wine industry. The local portfolio of brands includes spirits, liqueurs and Finnish wine brands, the best-known being the liqueur Minttu, along with their related production assets based in Turku, Finland. The closing of the transaction remains subject to customary conditions.
Case published 21.10.2024
We successfully represented Onses Finland Oy before the Finnish Market Court in an exceptionally extensive dispute concerning alleged trademark infringement and unfair business practice. Our client, Onses Finland Oy, is a Finnish sports drink company and the owner of the sports drink brand ONSE. In the spring of 2023, the Polish beverage company OSHEE Polska Sp. z o.o. filed legal action against our client, alleging that the ONSE trademarks and product packaging infringed the OSHEE trademarks. The plaintiff’s secondary claims concerned alleged slavish imitation of the OSHEE sports drink packaging and exploitation of the reputation of the plaintiff. The plaintiff based its suit on registered trademarks as well as allegedly established and reputed figurative and three-dimensional trademarks. The Market Court rejected all of the plaintiff’s claims. The Market Court held that the marks invoked in the suit were neither established nor marks with a reputation in Finland. As regards the registered trademarks, the Market Court found that there was no likelihood of confusion between the OSHEE and ONSE trademarks. As to the secondary claims, the Market Court held that the sports drink packaging used by the plaintiff was a normal beverage bottle, the design of which was partly determined by functional factors. The Market Court also found that there were several blue sports drinks available on the market and that the plaintiff’s product was not the first blue sports drink on the market. The plaintiff failed to show that its product packaging was original or well-known to the average consumer at the time of the launch of our client’s ONSE sports drink product, and the Market Court thus rejected the claims on slavish imitation and exploitation of reputation. The Market Court ordered the plaintiff to pay all of our client’s legal costs with statutory interest. The judgment (MAO:280/2024) is not final.
Case published 11.6.2024
We acted as Solina group’s Finnish legal counsel in its acquisition of Nestlé Professional Food A/S and Puljonki Oy, which own the premium culinary brands OSCAR and Puljonki, from the Nestlé group. The transaction is expected to be finalised prior to Q2 of 2024. Solina is a leading company within the food ingredient solutions industry and is active in 19 countries across Europe and North America.
Case published 23.2.2024
We advised Huhtamäki Oyj in its issuance of a EUR 300 million senior unsecured bond and on the tender offer of its EUR 150 million senior unsecured bond maturing in 2024. The new bond bears interest at a fixed interest rate of 5.125 per cent per annum. Huhtamaki used the net proceeds from the issue of the new bond for the partial repurchase of its bond maturing in 2024 and for refinancing and other general corporate purposes of the group.
Case published 10.1.2024