Exit Finland

By Tarja Wist & Mårten Knuts of Waselius & Wist

The current market situation has made a successful exit challenging. With initial public offerings down to zero, public take-overs, trade sales or even forced exits due to financial distress have become reality. Especially forced exits from joint ventures put the legal structure of the joint venture to the test.

General trends

Finland was long considered something of an investors’ backwater. In the latter part of the 1990’s, the foreign investment and the venture capital market, however, experienced substantial growth, partly riding on the wave of information technology. The booming growth of investments slowed down during the autumn of 2000. The economic downturn raised the previously unknown issue of exiting in times of bad weather, and due to the bearish stock markets, investors found themselves left with rather few opportunities of successful exits.