12.2.2019

Clients Rank Five of C&S’s Services as Finland’s Best in Prospera Law Firm Review 2019

Purchasers of business law services ranked several of Castrén & Snellman’s services as the best in Finland in the Prospera Tier 1 Law Firm Review 2019 client satisfaction survey. Our firm received the top ranking in the categories of Energy & Infrastructure, Public Procurement, Real Estate, Data Protection & Privacy as well as Insolvency & Reconstruction. Altogether, the number of our firm’s services in the top two tiers increased.

Clients listed the ability to deliver substantial projects, answer client needs in a timely manner and provide excellent service as particular strengths of Castrén & Snellman. In addition, clients highlighted leading the way in digital services as one of our strengths in a new category.

‘Substantial and challenging projects succeed when our extensive array of specialist expertise is strong in all business law services and cooperation runs smoothly across all branches of law. We are able to build the most successful teams for any project and ensure high quality and efficiency by combining our extensive array of specialist expertise. This has been the core of our strategy for a long time now, and the client feedback we have received tell us we are on the right track. I would like to thank our clients who participated in the survey for their feedback. This is an excellent foundation for use further develop our partnerships’, says Managing Partner Sakari Lukinmaa.

Castrén & Snellman’s services were placed in the top three ranks in a total of 13 categories:

The Prospera Tier 1 Law Firm Review survey is published annually. It focuses on the largest purchasers of legal service in Finland. This year answers from a total of 271 firms were received. Answers were provided by in-house counsel, CLOs and other management. The survey was carried out by Kantar Sifo between 30 October 2018 and 30 January 2019.

Latest references

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
We acted as Finnish legal advisor to Delta Capacity in connection with its acquisition of the ready-to-build Karppio battery energy storage system (BESS) project from Helios Nordic Energy. The acquisition was made and the project will be implemented together with Strioga Family Foundation. The Karppio BESS project is located in Teuva, Finland, and has a capacity of 125 MW / 300 MWh. Delta Capacity will lead the remaining development of the project through to commissioning, planned for 2027, and will serve as long-term asset manager. Delta Capacity is a Swiss-based developer of utility scale battery storage systems. The acquisition adds to Delta Capacity’s growing Nordic portfolio. 
Case published 20.7.2026