A historic business transaction was made in Finland: Among the previous ones, there are also harsh failures

Kone announced on Wednesday that it would buy a German elevator manufacturer TK Elevator. The enterprise value of the deal is 29.4 billion euros, which makes it the largest acquisition in the history of Finland in which a Finnish company has been the buyer.

The deal will be executed with cash and stock consideration. According to Kone, the arrangement is expected to bring about 700 million euros in annual synergies from, for example, connecting service networks and streamlining procurement processes. With the acquisition, Kone and TK Elevator form one of the largest players in the field worldwide.

Kone’s deal, if realized, would be unusually large even by European standards, but how does the deal compare to the previous biggest business deals in Finland?

Nokia held the top spot

In the past, the largest acquisition in Finland has been considered to be the French-American telecommunications equipment and systems supplier that Nokia carried out in 2015. Alcatel-Lucentin purchase. The value of the transaction was approximately EUR 15.6 billion, and it was implemented as a share exchange. With the corporate restructuring, Nokia strengthened its position among global network equipment manufacturers, and it remained for a long time the largest acquisition in Finnish corporate history.

The third largest business arrangement includes Fortum’s purchase from a German energy company Uniperista. Fortum increased its stake in the energy company between 2017 and 2020, and the value of the overall arrangement is estimated at more than 6 billion euros. The deal ended in 2022, when Fortum sold its holdings at a loss of billions of euros to the German state as a result of the European energy crisis.

A geospatial and digital mapping company created by Nokia in 2007 Navteq the purchase is next on the list. The US digital map manufacturer changed hands for around 5.7 billion euros. The background of the deal was Nokia’s effort to strengthen its position in location information and navigation services. The business was later known as Here, and Nokia sold it to German car manufacturers in 2015 for around 2.8 billion euros.

Although the sale price was significantly lower than the purchase price, Nokia recorded an accounting profit from the sale as a whole, as part of the value of the Navteq acquisition had already been written down and the result was affected by the release of exchange rate items.

Large purchases also in the forest industry

The next largest Finnish acquisition is Stora Enson in 2000 by the US forest industry Consolidated Papersin an acquisition whose value was around 4.9 billion euros. The deal was part of the forest industry company’s expansion into the North American market, but later led to significant write-downs.

Among the significant acquisitions of recent years is Nokia’s acquisition of an American network equipment manufacturer Infineran acquisition for approximately 2.1 billion euros. The deal was completed in early 2025 after approval from the authorities.

The background of the largest acquisitions of Finnish companies has typically been either to strengthen the international market position or to supplement operations with clear regional or business synergies. The acquisition of Kone and TK Elevator fits into this continuum, but its size in euros clearly exceeds previous Finnish acquisitions.

Finnish companies have been the targets of large deals

Finland’s corporate history also includes several large acquisitions in which a Finnish company has been the target of the transaction.

These include a Swede Telia and Finnish Sonera merger in 2002. The transaction was carried out as a share exchange, and is considered one of the largest Finnish business arrangements. Will also be among the biggest Microsoft’s The mobile phone business bought from Nokia in 2014 for around 5.4 billion euros.

In addition, a gaming company also emerges from the last decade Supercell transition to Chinese Tencentin to majority ownership through deals implemented in stages, the total value of which rose to around 7.8 billion euros. Also from the United States Doordashin Wolt– purchase in 2021 for approximately 7 billion euros was also the largest sale of an unlisted growth company in Finnish history.

A Finnish sports equipment company by Amer Sports the acquisition was one of the most significant arrangements of the 2010s. Chinese Give Sports led by an investor consortium bought Amer Sports Mascot Bidco Oy:n through in 2019, and the total value of the deal was around 4.6 billion euros.