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 Swedish Financial Market has expanded rapidly during the last decade. Companies have broadened the scope of their business, and many new companies have entered the market. One important change is the bank-insurance concept, i.e. banking and insurance operations are offered by the same financial group. This position has been adopted by all the leading actors on the Swedish market and we have a new structure for the financial services industry today.

Over the past several years Sweden has prepared new and from an international perspective very competitive rules, which make Swedish limited liability companies (<I>Sw. Aktiebolag</I>) very attractive as holding companies in international corporate structures

Over the last decade, the Nordic bond market has experienced significant growth in terms of volume and number of issuers and has become a viable alternative for issuers across substantially all