Independent lawyer with extensive cross-border experience

Kimmo Mettälä Consulting Ltd. is a specialist legal consulting firm focusing on financial, corporate/M&A and real estate transactions as well as arbitration.

The firm’s founder Kimmo Mettälä has been involved for decades as a private law firm partner and a transactional lawyer in the areas of international and domestic finance, corporate/M&A and real estate transactions. Through the firm he continues being available as a consultant for projects in his areas of expertise.

The firm is available to assist on domestic and cross-border projects in situations calling for sophisticated legal advice where the use of a full-scale law firm is not needed. The firm can also act in collaboration with other law firms to offer an optimal service package for the client. These situations may also include assisting foreign parties with their investments in Finland. Kimmo Mettälä is also available to act as a non-executive board member of companies that are seeking members with his background and experience.

Having acted in a number of arbitration proceedings as counsel and as arbitrator, Kimmo Mettälä is available as an independent arbitrator for domestic as well as international arbitration.

Expertise:

Banking and finance:

Kimmo Mettälä has extensive experience in the field of banking and finance law. He has practiced as an attorney in law firms and in different in-house positions in Finland, the United States and the United Kingdom. His experience includes all forms of lending, including sovereign lending, bilateral and syndicated loans, project financing, acquisition finance, real estate finance, trade and export finance as well as operations in the debt capital markets. He has advised sovereign, multilateral and commercial lenders and their borrowers in a large number of transactions over many decades. He has also been involved in a number of domestic and cross-border non-voluntary and voluntary enforcement and restructuring processes in which he has acted on behalf of both lenders and shareholders of companies.

Corporate/M&A:

Kimmo Mettälä has decades of experience in the corporate/M&A field, including representation of acquirers and sellers as well as minority investors in a large number of transactions in Finland and other jurisdictions. He has acted for multinational companies as well as private equity- and family owned businesses and start-ups. His experience ranges over many types of businesses in different sectors, including manufacturing, pulp and paper, chemical industry, automotive, retail, distribution, telecommunications, infrastructure and real estate, banking, financial and other service industries to name a few. His M&A practice has involved sale and purchase of both privately and publicly held companies.

Real estate and infrastructure:

Kimmo Mettälä’s experience in the area of real estate and infrastructure finance includes sovereign loans to finance infrastructure investments and commercial lending by means of project finance and limited recourse financings. These projects have involved both the construction of hotel facilities and commercial real property, as well as renewable energy production facilities. In addition to finance, he has acted for developers, sellers, buyers and financiers in domestic and cross-border real estate acquisitions and divestitures. He has represented different parties in PPP transactions in Finland, and he has advised sellers, owners and other parties in commercial shopping center, recreational arena and other high-value real estate investments and the financing of such projects.

Arbitration:

Kimmo Mettälä has acted as counsel and as arbitrator and chair of arbitral tribunal in a number of commercial arbitration proceedings as well as squeeze-out arbitrations under the Companies Act.

Arbitration proceedings in which Kimmo Mettälä has been involved have included, among others, complex cross-border and domestic proceedings relating to large infrastructure project assets, sale of commercial property facilities, distribution of electricity and delivery of machinery and equipment.

Kimmo Mettälä has completed the Arbitration Academy of the Finland Arbitration Institute (FAI) and is a member of the Users’ Council of the London Court of International Arbitration.

Geographic expertise:

  • Kimmo Mettälä has decades of international experience, and he has spent some 10 years in the U.S. and the U.K. as a transactional lawyer at The World Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and a major U.S. law firm.  Throughout his law firm career he has frequently represented clients from the U.S., the U.K. and other jurisdictions. His experience and extensive network of contacts are helpful when dealing with clients and other parties in those jurisdictions.
  • Other geographic areas in which he has accumulated transactional experience over many years include Latin America and Eastern and Central Europe.

Publications

Kimmo Mettälä has published articles and co-authored textbooks in the areas of business and financial law and arbitration in Finnish, U.S. and international legal publications.