9.4.2018

Castrén & Snellman to Partner with Growth Collective Finland

Castrén & Snellman Attorneys is partnering with Growth Collective Finland (Kasvuryhmä), an accelerator for Finnish scale-up companies. The goal of this partnership is to help Finnish growth companies fulfil their ambitions and to learn about managing growth together.

‘It’s great to have the opportunity to learn from growth companies in a new way and to provide our legal expertise to them in return. We want to help Finnish companies grow and succeed both in Finland and abroad. Growth companies are a vital resource not only to the economy, but to all of Finnish society,’ says Castrén & Snellman Managing Partner Sakari Lukinmaa.

Growth Collective Finland was founded in 2015 with the purpose of developing the entrepreneurial spirit in Finland and to accelerate the renewal and growth of Finnish scale-ups in an inspiring way. The total turnover of the member companies is nearly 13 billion euros. The collective consists of the owners and managing directors of 190 growth companies, and the collective bases its work on sharing experiences, peer pressure and cross-industry learning.

Castrén & Snellman Attorneys employees about 140 lawyers and 250 people in total in Helsinki, Moscow and St Petersburg. The firm’s mission is to help its clients succeed in a rapidly changing world.

For more information, please contact:

Sakari Lukinmaa
Managing Partner 
tel. +358 (0) 20 7765 391, sakari.lukinmaa@castren.fi

Kaisa Barkman
Communications & Marketing Director
tel. +358 (0) 20 7765 225, kaisa.barkman@castren.fi

Latest references

We advised Hopeasalmen Telakka Oy, part of Marina Group, on the acquisitions of Iisiveneily and Porvoon Venekorjaamo. The transactions form part of Marina Group’s expansion into the Finnish marina and boatyard sector, strengthening its position under the Quattro Marine brand. Following the acquisitions, Quattro Marine’s Finnish operations comprise Hopeasalmen Telakka, which operates boatyard facilities in Helsinki’s Mustikkamaa and in Tolkkinen, Porvoo, together with Iisiveneily and Porvoon Venekorjaamo. Marina Group is a Norwegian marina and boatyard consortium owned by the private equity sponsor Norvestor. It has grown rapidly through acquisitions to become the Nordic region’s largest boating services provider, having acquired 24 marinas and boatyards across Norway, Sweden and Finland within roughly a year.
Case published 24.8.2026
We advised Neste as it signed a EUR 250 million 10-year loan with NIB. The loan will finance Neste’s investments related to research and development (R&D) in processing lower-quality feedstocks into high-quality renewable products; as well as the liquefied waste plastics (LWP) investment at Neste’s refinery in Porvoo, Finland. The R&D activities supported by the loan focus on the development of renewable solutions. These include, for example, expanding feedstock capabilities and technologies that enable the processing of new and lower-quality waste and residues into high-quality renewable end products. Part of the financing supports Neste’s liquefied waste plastics investment in Porvoo, related to upgrading low-quality plastic waste into high-quality feedstock at an industrial scale. The investment contributes to advancing circular economy solutions by enabling the use of hard-to-recycle plastic waste as a replacement for virgin fossil raw materials. The unit has an annual capacity to process up to 150,000 tonnes of liquefied waste plastic. Production ramp-up commenced in 2026.
Case published 19.8.2026
We advised Aspo Plc, ESL Shipping Ltd and AtoBatC Shipping AB in relation to finance matters in connection with the demerger of Aspo, by which all the shares in ESL Shipping Ltd held by Aspo, together with the related assets and liabilities, will be transferred to a new independent company to be named ESL Shipping Group Plc. Aspo intends to apply for the shares of ESL Shipping Group to be admitted to trading on the regulated market of Nasdaq Helsinki. It is further intended that Aspo be renamed Telko Group Plc. 
Case published 19.8.2026
We acted as Finnish law legal adviser to the lenders and the export credit agencies in connection with the EUR 514.4 million green project financing for the development and construction of Easpring Finland New Materials Oy’s cathode active material (CAM) manufacturing plant in Kotka, Finland. The borrower, Easpring Finland New Materials Oy, is a joint venture owned by Beijing Easpring Material Technology, Finnish Minerals Group and LG Energy Solution. The financing was provided by six international commercial banks, with Société Générale acting as financial adviser and mandated lead arranger together with Natixis as co-mandated lead arranger, and DNB, ICBC, ING and Standard Chartered participating as lenders, with support from the export credit agencies Finnvera and Sinosure. The project represents a significant milestone for Finland and the European battery value chain by strengthening Europe’s domestic supply of cathode active materials, a key component in lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and energy storage applications. Once the first phase of the project is operational, the Kotka facility is expected to produce approximately 60,000 tonnes of cathode active material annually, making it one of the largest CAM production plants in Europe and supplying leading battery manufacturers across Europe. 
Case published 21.7.2026