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The Nordic region is generally viewed to be

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one of the most stable and deepest markets

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in Europe.

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It's stable because of the underlying economies with

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very good growth and low inflation, but also

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because the government debt being below 40% in

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all countries except for Finland, which is more

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along the European average.

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It's deep because of a very well-functioning

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capital market.

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If you take Sweden alone, for instance, in

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Sweden we've had over 500 IPOs over the

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last 10 years, which is more than Germany,

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the Netherlands, France and Spain together.

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It's deep also in the sense of a

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very high PE penetration, where if you take

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last year, among the investments being made by

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private equity into Europe,

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~14% was made into

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portfolio companies based in the Nordic region, which

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is the same amount that was invested into

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the DACH region.

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The DACH region has a population of 100

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million and the Nordics is about 28, so

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it's really beating above its weight.

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The Nordic region is beating above its weight

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also when it comes to M&A with

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volumes, and that's been the case for decades,

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being around, I think if you take the

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last five years, it's at par with France.

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It is twice the size of Spain.

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The biggest market in Europe is obviously the

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U.K. and the Nordic region stands in dollar

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volumes for about half of that size.

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So it's a significant market from an M&A perspective.

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The main driver for M&A

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going forwards in the Nordic region is very

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much the return of the healthy IPO market.

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Similar to many other regions, we've had a

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couple of years of low activity and now

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recently we're seeing a strong return with a

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strong pipeline of healthy companies coming to market.

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That is of course helping to increase confidence

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both among financial sponsors and among corporates.

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Financial sponsors are now already planning

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launching long-awaited exits.

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They can go through an IPO or M&A,

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They can go through an IPO or M&A,

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but also corporates are now dusting off

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their M&A agenda after some waiting period

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over the last few years.

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So in general, we are expecting a healthy

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flow of good M&A and increasing volume

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of M&A in the Nordic region going forward.