Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP

Eero Rautalahti Edwards Wildman Palmer UK LLP Partner London Tel +44 (0) 20 7556 4410 Fax +44 (0) 20 7716 3665 Download VCard

Eero Rautalahti is a partner based in our London office. His practice focuses on advising investment banks and listed companies in the former Soviet Union and Northern Europe on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, IPOs, equity and debt offerings. He offers significant industry experience in mining, energy, agriculture and high-technology.

Eero has advised underwriters and issuers in more than 40 equity and debt offerings, with listings in London, Stockholm, Helsinki, Frankfurt, Toronto, Riga and Tallinn. He has also advised on high-profile public and private M&A transactions.

He is a member of the Finnish bar and a solicitor in England and Wales.

He is currently ranked by Chambers Global, 2012 and his industry expertise has gained him several references in the UK edition of Legal 500:

"mining and minerals expert Eero Rautalahti"

"Eero Rautalahti ... is recommended; one client observes that 'he has a superb understanding of the underlying business and the key players from having previously worked in the industry, as well as exceptional deal-making skills'."

Capital Markets

Eero advises investments banks and issuers on initial public offerings, secondary offerings, private placements and bond issues, in most cases involving a Rule 144A offering to United States.

In 2004, Eero led the team of lawyers advising on the SAF Tehnika initial public offering, one of the first non-privatisation IPOs from the former Soviet Union. Since then, he has advised on numerous transactions involving issuers from the former Soviet Union states or companies investing in Russia or Ukraine. Since 2007, he has advised on 15 securities offerings in the farming and agricultural sector.

In 1997-2000, Eero advised international and regional investment banks on Rule 144A IPOs by high-tech Northern European companies.

Mergers and Acquisitions

Eero has advised on the English law aspects of several high-profile public company M&A transactions involving Northern or Eastern European businesses. For example, he advised the clean-tech company Greenvironment in 2010 on its reverse takeover by an English plc publicly traded on the Open Market of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

Similarly, he has advised on numerous private mergers and acquisitions and joint ventures. Most of these have been cross-border transactions governed by English law. Many of these transactions have been related to mining or commodities businesses, private equity or venture capital investments or exits, or investments in the former Soviet Union.

• Speaker in the opening session of EuroLawyer conference in London March 2009.
  
  
• Frequently training investment bankers in the execution of equity and debt offerings and M&A transactions.
  
  
• Frequent lecturer at corporate finance and M&A conferences organised by Euromoney, IIR, Hawksmere and Falconbridge, lecturer on the European Mining Course of the Royal School of Mines 1996-2001.
  
  
• "Long-Term Concentrate Contracts - Essential Risk Management," Thomson Financial PFI Market Intelligence Report Financing Global Mining.
  
  
• "IPOs and private equity - stormy seas ahead?" Financier Worldwide
  
  
• "Can a dual track IPO secure an exit for a private equity investor?" Finance Worldwide
  
  
• "Financial Regulators in UK to Scrutinise Metals Trading," Mining Finance
  
  
• "Paradox of Long Term Concentrate Contracts," Mining Finance

• More Publications...

Eero Rautalahti moved to London in 1995 to join Allen & Overy, where he was responsible for the firm's Mining and Metals and Nordic Desks. He joined Edwards Wildman Palmer from the London office of a U.S. law firm.