Juha Sarsama, Panostaja Oyj
Fondia Legal Department customer since February 2008.
We expect new solutions, not more problems.
Tampere-based Panostaja is a multi-field corporation specialising in the development of Finnish industries. The company makes extensive use of Fondia’s services.
Panostaja acquires and sells companies and operates as their long-term owner and developer, while Fondia takes care of providing legal advice during Panostaja’s corporate acquisitions as well as its day-to-day legal matters. Indeed, so successful is the partnership that a large number of Panostaja’s subsidiaries also use the services of FondiaLegalDepartment.
“We first tried out Fondia’s services on smaller projects to ensure it was the right fit for us and we came to see that their services scale perfectly. We can fit both the day-to-day matters and big projects into one package” states Juha Sarsama, CEO of Panostaja, who himself is an experienced mergers and acquisitions lawyer.
Panostaja has been very pleased with the expertise displayed by the lawyers from Fondia’s Transactions team. Their flexibility and professionalism has been tested while under pressure with the deadline for a major project looming ever nearer. Furthermore, Fondia has assisted Panostaja in the capital market, a role traditionally reserved for investment banks. The reality is that if Panostaja operated in a more traditional fashion, it would have to buy legal services from several agencies rather than just one provider.
Sarsama considers FondiaToolkit to be a particularly suitable tool for consolidated corporations. “Proper risk management means that we need to keep up with the affairs of our subsidiaries as well. We can then double-check in board meetings that matters have been dealt with properly and in doing so we can increase transparency.”
Panostaja appreciates the ability of Fondia’s lawyers to recognise critical areas and suggest innovative solutions. Consequently, with Fondia in charge of daily legal matters, the directors of Panostaja can focus on core business. According to Sarsama, the best aspect of the collaboration is the enthusiasm. “Creating new ideas is effortless when working with Fondia's lawyers. The atmosphere they produce is modern and energetic, and quite literally everyone glows in it".