LongAcre enters Nordic market

TMT corporate finance house, LongAcre Partners has acquired Stockholm-based corporate finance house, Lommen Corporate Finance to form LongAcre Nordic. The acquisition marks the start of the firm’s European expansion strategy. Longacre now has a team of 25 professionals delivering sector-focused advice.

Lommen shares similar market positioning to LongAcre, dedicated to providing corporate finance advice to emerging and medium sized companies in the technology, media and telecom sectors.

Jonathan Goodwin, joint chief executive officer of Longacre, which was set up last September, said of the firm’s decision to target the Nordic region: “There is a lot of business coming from the Scandinavian market, particularly in the new media and wireless sectors.”

He added that this is the first step in the firm’s expansion of its pan European coverage: “We are looking to set up elsewhere in Europe, but probably not through acquisition. Germany is a priority in our mind, as it has a large VC community and significant opportunity with the Mittelstand.”

As well as expanding into the Nordic region, the acquisition will enhance Longacre’s cross border capabilities and give its European clients access to Lommen’s technological and telecom expertise gained in the Nordic market. It will also provide Lommen’s client base with access to London’s capital markets.

Established in Sweden in 1998, Lommen has completed around 20 mandates for various companies including Kabel New Media, Kamera Interactive and Enlight AB. Hans Hemmingsson, managing director of Lommen, said: “The timing of the deal couldn’t be better for us to develop a focused investment unit that is perfectly poised to exploit the fast growing deal flow emerging as TMT markets begin to strengthen.”

LongAcre and Lommen have already announced their first joint transaction in advising e-learning company Enlight on the disposal of Pan Interactive to KF Media, the Scandinavian media and technology group. Longacre and Lommen worked together to assist web-based test and certification company, Enlight with its disposal of its 76 per cent shareholding in

Pan Interactive, enabling the company to streamline its operations towards web-based products for quality assured learning.