Sorainen advised Ringier Axel Springer Media AG on the local law aspects of its acquisition of 100% of the shares in CV Keskus, operator of leading job classified sites cvkeskus.ee in Estonia, cvmarket.lv in Latvia and cvmarket.lt in Lithuania.
Established in Estonia in 2000, CV Keskus expanded to Latvia and Lithuania in 2004. CV Keskus has been owned by the HeadHunter Group since 2007. Povilas Kytra, who has worked with the group for the past 10 years, will remain CEO.
Today, the job classifieds group reaches a total of over 1.8 million monthly visitors (source: Google Analytics, Feb 2017). It publishes over 6,000 job ads monthly and currently provides access to a live database of close to 1 million active CVs (internal source).
Says Mark Dekan, CEO of Ringier Axel Springer Media AG: “With the expansion of our job classifieds business into the Baltics, we are strategically entering this high growth region. The Baltic countries are among the most digitized economies in the EU. Strong GDP growth will also drive the growth of the HR services industry. This will increase the demand for recruitment services and have a positive effect on the job classifieds segment. We will build on the strong expertise in classifieds that lies in our Group and with our shareholders.”
Adds Povilas Kytra, CEO of CV Keskus: “I am very much looking forward to combining the strength of our group with the experience and know-how of Ringier Axel Springer and to further developing our offer in the Baltic region.”
The Sorainen regional transaction team supporting Ringier Axel Springer Media AG in the due diligence phase as well as in negotiating and executing the transaction was led by partner Toomas Prangli and also included senior associates Piret Lappert, Renate Purvinska and Jonas Kiauleikis.
