Septem Partners Oy Investment Bank (Finland) takes an active interest in the privatization process in Belarus. Today the issue will be discussed in Minsk at a meeting between the senior officials of the State Property Committee of Belarus and Septem Partners Oy CEO Kari Viitala and partner of the bank Ilkka Salonen, BelTA learnt from the press service of the State Property Committee (SPC).

In Minsk the Finnish bank operates locally to get necessary market insights, as well as contacts with the authorities. According to Septem Partners Oy, for execution purposes the bank covers the financial due diligence and coordinates the work for legal due diligence with local specialists. Overall management and negotiations are conducted in close cooperation with the Helsinki or Tokyo offices.

Attending the meeting will be the chairman of the committee Georgy Kuznetsov, Deputy Economy Minister Oleg Melnikov and the director of the State Property Fund Natalya Zhernosek.

Septem Partners Oy is an investment bank providing advisory services in cross border mergers and acquisitions, target and partner search and fund raising in very focused market areas. The clients of the bank are typically Nordic and other Western European companies doing acquisitions in Russia and Belarus, and Japanese companies doing acquisitions in Western Europe or Russia.

Ilkka Salonen has a unique experience in the Russian banking market. Starting from 1980s he served in various senior positions in International Moscow Bank, presently known as UniCredit Bank. In 1998 Ilkka Salonen took up the position of the CEO and President of the Board of Management. Subsequently he served as President at Renaissance Investment Management, Deputy Chairman at Sberbank of Russia. He was the first foreigner in the history of the bank to serve as a member of the board in charge of international and corporate business.