The Administrative Court in Stockholm has today announced that it has annulled the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority's decision to issue observations...

As a result of proposed legislative changes to implement EU Directive 2003/41 (on the activities and supervision of institutions for occupational retirement provisions), Swedish Insurance companies will shortly have increased possibilities to invest in private equity as an asset class.

There has been a recent surge of public M&A transactions in Sweden. One of the aspects that have been widely debated in connection with several recent public bids have been the use of legal mergers as a substitute for mandatory redemption procedures to reach 100% ownership following a takeover bid.

The current Swedish right of priority legislation, which is set forth in the Right of Priority Act (SFS 1970:979) was amended on 1 January 2004. The new legislation has been preceded by considerable disunion in the Swedish Parliament with several controversial questions being raised. So what are the reasons for changing the legislation?

Sweden has implemented new participation exemption rules, making Sweden a competitive country for the establishment of holding companies. In general capital gains on shares held for business purposes are exempt from capital gains taxation. The regime is based on the concept that dividends and capital gains on foreign participations are exempt from tax under the same conditions as capital gains and dividends related to Swedish shares.

From an overall perspective the corporate acquisition process in Sweden has a striking resemblance to that which applies elsewhere in Europe. The chain of documents required is the same, and even the documents’ contents strongly resemble that which is applied in the UK and continental Europe.

This article will cover investments in Sweden through mergers and acquisitions, primarily those of banks.