Indufor and Berhan have Established M&A Joint Venture Focusing on Emerging Markets
04/04/2008
Indufor Oy and Berhan Oy have established a joint company Berhan Indufor Oy to advise their client companies through successful merger and acquisition processes.
Berhan and Indufor have worked together in M&A projects during past four years and have now determined that the most efficient way to serve their clients is by forming a joint venture company focused solely on mergers and acquisitions in the forestry cluster.
The two companies have complementary skills with Berhan’s strong M&A experience and work in the emerging markets China, India and Russia and Indufor’s extensive global forestry and forest industry knowledge. The management of both companies is convinced that the combination of the skills will enable them to offer the industry segment a superior service solution.
The new joint venture will help its clients all the way through the merger or acquisition process from identifying the business opportunity, through the negotiations and the “take over” process. It will focus on serving companies in forestry, forest industry and related fields (e.g., equipment for forest industry). The geographic focus of the company will be in China, Russia, India and Latin America (i.e., the BRIC countries) with initial emphasis on China.
“Forestry and forest industry in the BRIC countries offer significant growth opportunities for Western companies. For example, China has both a rapidly growing domestic market and numerous expanding export companies. At the same time, many Chinese companies are searching partners for continued growth”, said Indufor’s Managing Director Mr. Tapani Oksanen.
Understanding the entire merger/acquisition process is important, and an outside expert can bring a valuable contribution to the process. “The key issue in successful M&A and joint venture projects in emerging markets is understanding the business case and the other parties real interests and opinions right. The process is all about building trust, both ways. This specifically is where Indufor and Berhan can add value to our client companies”, adds Berhan CEO and Chairman Mr. Hannu Bergholm.
The joint venture Berhan Indufor Oy is equally owned by the two partners. The parent companies will continue their businesses independently of the JV in other business areas and in other geographic markets.
The concept of the new company was launched on January 31, in Shanghai, China, where Berhan Indufor Oy held a seminar on forest cluster mergers and acquisitions during a visit by a Finnish business delegation led by Dr. Paavo Väyrynen, the Finnish Minister of Foreign Trade and Development.
For more information about the joint venture, or to find out how Berhan Indufor can help you, please contact: indufor(at)indufor.fi or hb(at)berhan.fi