So, it’s about Framery Oy
https://www.finder.fi/Toimistokalusteet/Framery+Oy/Tampere/yhteystiedot/2363161
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Kauppalehti features the private equity investors’ traditional list of potential listed companies:
(paywall, found in today’s June 11th Kauppalehti)
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Here is the same news again, but without a paywall
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Even at the European level, listings have plummeted since 2021, but not quite to zero. Starting from such low numbers, in percentage terms, listing activity this year is already showing signs of picking up compared to last year. Hopefully, at some point, we’ll also get the first listing in Hesuli. 
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A potential new IPO candidate in the news feed (no paywall). The talk, at least, is pointing in that direction, and it is reported that Jussi Holopainen (CEO), who recently left Enersense, and Markku Kankaala (Chairman of the Board), Chairman of Wetteri’s board, are involved.
Apparently, the group-level business model is taking the form of a “serial acquirer”. It is not specified in more detail which companies are involved. Regarding ownership, it is only stated that the company is “in Finnish hands”. The press release (link) states that the goal is to grow into a group of over EUR 500 million before 2028 and that the company is exploring the possibility of listing in Helsinki within the next 12 months.
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If you search for information on Summa Defence, the company’s current name is SAO Defence Oy (3455766-7). A name change to Summa Defence Oy appears to be pending at the PRH (Finnish Patent and Registration Office).
In addition to the PRH extract, the board members can also be seen on the Asiakastieto page.
- As reported in the Kauppalehti article, Kankaala is the chairman of the board. According to the registry extract, there are two other board members, one of whom is Martti Haapala, who is also a board member of Wetteri. The third member is Samuli Koskela, a member of Wetteri’s management team.
According to the registry extract, the memorandum of association was signed on June 5th. In the trade register extract from Virre, the line of business description is:
“The company’s line of business is the defense equipment industry and other production serving the maintenance of defense readiness, as well as the pursuit of business activities related to or suitable in connection with these. The company operates either directly or through its subsidiaries, associates, or joint ventures.”
In the Kauppalehti article, Holopainen mentioned that “in the initial phase, Summa Defence will focus on situational awareness, mobility, and protection solutions. Regarding situational awareness: drones, data transmission, satellite technology. Regarding mobility: self-driving and human-driven vehicles. Regarding protection: China-independent material innovations.”
So, at least drones and satellites would interest Summa. Finnish companies certainly have interesting products. For example, the drone Insta Steel Eagle, developed by Insta Group, which includes the effective explosive charge Steel Burst, has been featured in public. Perhaps there are other companies developing drones for the defense industry. There are also small satellite technology companies, such as the Finnish ReOrbit Oy.
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Medicortex has a plan for the new company to list on First North. However, a share issue is still ongoing beforehand. https://www.medicortex.fi/eng/investors/
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If M-Files has been among our potential IPO candidates, we will have to wait at least a while longer.
A majority stake has been sold to private equity firms Haveli Investments and Bregal Milestone.
I remember the latter as a long-term major shareholder of Basware. I believe they managed to sell most of their holdings before Basse was acquired.
Once again, the majority of a Finnish growth company was sold abroad Taas yhden suomalaisen kasvuyhtiön enemmistö myytiin ulkomaille | Kauppalehti
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Solar Foods shares are already showing up on Nordnet, drumroll…
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There was an article about Solar Foods in Helsingin Sanomat. It is supposed to list next month, albeit as a technical listing. Suomalainen proteiinivalmistaja listautuu – ”Olemme syntyneet ratkaisemaan globaalia ongelmaa” | HS.fi
Finnish protein manufacturer Solar Foods plans to list on the Helsinki Stock Exchange’s First North growth market in September.
This is a technical listing, meaning no share issue or sale will be organized in connection with it.
As a final lighthearted note, this fits Hesuli quite well:
In 2023, the company’s revenue was about 5,000 euros and the loss was nearly 7 million.
It had not yet started commercializing the product
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Wonder if we might get some battery business on the Helsinki stock exchange? 
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Springvest may be creating a quite noteworthy new route for growth companies to the stock market (case: Solar Foods’ listing).
In other words, the listing company raises capital and a sufficient number of shareholders first through Springvest round(s) and then carries out a technical listing on First North. From the perspective of the listing company, this offers a significant advantage: the IPO project itself becomes almost risk-free since there is no risk related to the success of the offering. This is what many are hesitant about: you put in a massive amount of work for the listing, and then while the subscription window is open, the market crashes or there is no demand, and the entire project falls through. Of course, technical listings also have their downsides; they don’t achieve the same level of visibility and interest in the market. In terms of costs, I can’t say if this route is more efficient, but in terms of risks, it could be an option worth considering for many companies contemplating an IPO. And generally, for the listing market, it’s a good thing that different channels and service providers are entering the ecosystem 
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https://summadefence.fi/2024/09/kontra-amiraali-juha-vauhkonen-summa-defence-oyn-johtoryhmaan
“Summa Defence Oy is strengthening its management team by appointing the former Chief of Intelligence of the Defence Command, Rear Admiral Juha Vauhkonen, as the company’s Director of Defence and Security Affairs starting September 2, 2024.
Vauhkonen will be responsible for the strategic management and development of the company’s defense and security affairs, creating value and competitiveness for the company.”
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A few thoughts, continuing the discussion from the Solar thread as a side stream here, on the topic of pushing early-stage company innovations onto the stock market.
In my opinion, the Helsinki Stock Exchange needs more companies like Solar. Preferably dozens, because then (among numerous failures) a few super-successes are likely to emerge in the coming decades. But equally, we need investors in the Helsinki exchange (Hesuli) who understand early-stage companies and whose strategy includes owning them, so that listings (IPOs and funding rounds on the exchange) can be successfully realized.
It is ironic that people complain about Helsinki having stagnant (mörniviä) dividend companies, but then as soon as there is an announcement of a listing with some absolutely mind-bogglingly ambitious plans, we have one group claiming it is a scam and another group appalled by a pre-revenue company’s few thousand euros of revenue relative to its market cap. Eka is right that as long as our investment culture romanticizes dividend-stagnation and we compare Nightingale and Wärtsilä with the same metrics, the best startups/scaleups will seek their funding privately, end up with an industrial buyer, or eventually list somewhere other than Helsinki. It is a far-fetched thought that Wolt, Relex, or Silo would have listed in Helsinki in the current environment. Of course, the background is also that we are a relatively capital-poor country. That is harder to influence, but what we can influence is making our exchange a more growth-entrepreneur-friendly place. This is without downplaying the fact that every listing should be approached with healthy criticism and the screening must be stricter than in Sweden, which is known for its wild-west (hulivili) listings.
I say this as an investor who personally owns mostly mature-stage companies 
My attitude toward early-stage listings is curious and willing to learn. Many listings do not fit my personal investment strategy at all, but that does not make them any less suitable for the exchange.
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I came across an interesting text about the “American IPO dream,” which Finnish companies also occasionally dream of, as the idea that “multiples are higher over there” is hard to resist. However, it’s been rough going for IPOs on the other side of the pond as well:
Roughly 60% of deals were done by the same 10 investment banks. This is the same cohort of banks that we previously found were encouraging companies to do a reverse split to meet the listing qualifications and taking warrants as part of their deal structure. This advice is destructive to these companies and dilutive to their shareholders.
https://blog.otcmarkets.com/2024/06/05/still-awful-an-update-on-the-small-cap-ipo-cycle/
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It seems to me that your text and the part quoted from me are talking about completely different things, so I’d like to clarify what I mean. We’ve had two new “deeptech” companies list on the exchange in a short period, Canatu and Solar Foods, but in my opinion, only one of these absolutely belongs on the exchange and the other would indeed have been better off staying in a PE fund.
The reason I say this is not due to a hatred of loss-making growth companies, but because even though I have read hundreds of pages of text (the prospectus, analyses), watched Karo’s Grill and other video materials, I still have no idea why Solar Foods listed and what their business plan is. This isn’t surprising in itself since the company doesn’t even know what strategy they want to proceed with, as stated on page A-54 of the prospectus:
At its meeting on August 7, 2024, the Company’s Board of Directors noted that the previous growth scenarios do not correspond to the view at the time of Listing and has decided to start a new strategy process in the fall of 2024, intended to clarify and supplement the Company’s strategy. As part of the strategy process, the intention is to draft new growth targets for the Company. The Company will announce the new strategy at a separately announced time later. This Prospectus does not present more detailed scenarios in euros for the Company’s future revenue amounts or the construction schedules of subsequent factories or their financing models (own factories, joint ventures, or technology licensing).
For some reason, however, Solar Foods was in a hurry to list on the exchange before the company’s strategy was clear. Why? Investor-friendly reasons to come to the exchange relate to more efficient use of the company’s shares (raising capital, M&A, incentives, etc.). In this case, however, they decided not to raise money, even though the only previously presented path to profitability would require investments of hundreds of millions. Talvivaara once raised €261 million from the public, but I find it quite unlikely that a micro-cap company could raise significant sums of money without the one-time attention brought by an IPO. So what was the equity story here?
Since I don’t know or can’t think of good reasons why the company hurried to the exchange, I have to assume the reasons were bad—for example, one of the major owners wanting to get rid of their shares as quickly as possible. I think it would have been more sensible to have a professional PE fund there coaching the founders on the basics of strategy and perhaps even securing some preliminary funding for that strategy. Now we have to settle for the shouting of forum pseudonyms.
Hesuli is actually better than its reputation, and we have many good value companies in the micro- and nano-cap space, as well as a fair amount of genuinely interesting and potential growth companies. The problem is that no one is aware of these because there is almost no investor interest directed at small Finnish companies. Although we have a few nano-caps capable of visibility far beyond their size (e.g., Inderes and @Harri_Sieppi’s Witted), commercial media and the most visible investor personalities focus solely on boomer companies in Finland and increasingly also in the US. There aren’t enough millionaires among retail investors to fix the inefficiencies at the smallest end of the market and provide funding to companies when traditional banks are hesitant. The lack of liquidity caused by a capital-poor population, in turn, effectively scares away bigger players.
I understand, of course, that for many growth companies, private equity markets are more convenient and even more efficient due to less publicity; there’s a lot of new money there that came during the zero-interest era, and even the state-owned Tesi (Finnish Industry Investment Ltd). However, I hope, like you, that we get more growth companies into the home exchange.
It is, of course, very difficult to get the Finnish investor to take more risk, and the older generation doesn’t even dare to move money out of their bank accounts. The 90s, the IT bubble, the Financial Crisis, the Euro crisis, and now the “Ränta på Ränta” markets have taught investors that a sharp rise in prices is always followed by a crash. We also have quite a few capital funds run by shady characters who use the stock exchange as a dumping ground for companies when the cashing-out win… excuse me, listing window is open. This has created a massive amount of healthy skepticism and criticality toward the promises of listing companies. Since growth companies often sell promises rather than concrete results, convincing investors is even more challenging.
To lure retail investors in, a DIVIDEND STRATEGY is then also drafted, even though if a company is at the point where it can start paying dividends, the listing is already inevitably late. Well, I’m willing to show a little mercy regarding this criticism because company owners in this country are so poor that without those couple of percent annual dividends, they wouldn’t be distinguishable from an average doctor-employee. Pension companies and the state as owners are, of course, a chapter of their own.
Inderes has done a lot of good work regarding market communication, but I would still hope for at least an answer to the simplest question from new companies, especially growth companies, before listing: “What do I as an investor gain from putting my money into your company, and when will I receive this benefit?” It’s often difficult to get an answer to this question and frustrating to try and find one.
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Good points. I took that quote from you because (without taking a stand on Solar) I agree with it on a general level. “It’s better to go to a PE fund and only later to the stock exchange” is advice we have given many companies in our IPO coaching, shattering their IPO dreams. I would certainly like to advise otherwise!
Canatu vs. Solar, in my opinion, Canatu is at a significantly more mature stage of development. Having founded one startup myself, I can say that we didn’t have a clue about a business plan in the early years either 
One characteristic of companies at such an early stage is that the business model only iterates over time, and the first idea is often even completely wrong. For example, Solar is at a development stage where, in my opinion, the company shouldn’t lock down whether they will build factories on their own balance sheet, use partner models, or if the company will become a deep tech firm licensing its technology. A new investor must accept this uncertainty, which even for me, as an investor focused on mature companies, is something I easily struggle with. It is significantly easier to go public when the business model is sufficiently refined, there is already some track record, and funding is needed to scale a “proven business model” to some extent.
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Leden Group Oy (3186355-4) was founded in 2021.
LaserComp Oy, headquartered in Nivala, and its subsidiary Celermec Oy from Sievi, Ojala Group Oy, which operates in Finland and Estonia, and the Estonian company Favor AS merged last late winter into a full-service metal and electromechanical contract manufacturer, Leden Group Oy.
Leden Group Oy is moving its operations to new facilities in Kivisenkangas, Oulainen. Leden Group’s sheet metal operations, busbar mechanics, and assembly operations, which currently operate in Sievi, will move to Oulainen. The change also involves moving approximately 250 employees from Sievi to Oulainen.
Could this have the potential to go public as a competitor to Componenta? A fresh company on a buying spree. Apparently, more acquisitions are on the way.
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More appointments to Summa Defence’s board.
"In addition to a significant international military career, Arto Räty has also served as Permanent Secretary at the Finnish Ministry of Defence. In recent years, Räty has acted in a Senior Advisor role, as well as a board member in several significant domestic companies.
Räty has an exceptionally broad industry vision and an international network.
- I see it as my outright duty to get involved in creating opportunities for Finnish defense and security companies to grow, and at the same time, the prerequisites to succeed globally. At Summa Defence, I am particularly inspired by the fact that the group is being built for a real need, and it accounts for comprehensive security and the needs of authorities, in addition to the defense industry, says Arto Räty.
- General Räty brings extensive substance expertise from the defense industry and, of course, from the Ministry of Defence to Summa Defence’s board. During the summer, we have worked together with the company’s executive management on several acquisitions, and our goal is to announce the group’s first subsidiaries still within this year, says Markku Kankaala, Chairman of the Board of Summa Defence.
- Interest in Summa Defence is not limited to Finland alone; we are constantly receiving contacts from across Europe. Arto Räty’s expertise and his extensive international connections will certainly benefit the realization of Summa Defence’s growth targets, says the company’s CEO, Jussi Holopainen."
https://summadefence.fi/2024/09/summa-defence-oyn-hallitukseen-kenraaliluutnantti-arto-raty/
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We need investors who have the nerve to watch the value of their holdings melt away, as happened with almost all companies listed in 2021? Jokes aside, it’s nice to get new companies on the exchange, but from that group, I think only Kempower has produced a positive return; otherwise, the decline has been very sharp in some cases. That’s quite an achievement in a couple of years and raises questions about whether the companies were originally listed with overly optimistic valuation multiples and assumptions, or if so many companies took a turn for the worse after listing…
I’m not surprised if investors are skeptical and cautious—once you burn your fingers badly, you don’t want to repeat the same mistake.
In any case, it would be good to get more companies on the exchange, but listings should happen at valuations that allow investors to get a reasonable return on their investments.
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