About

‘I have a very unique role, combining general counsel and investment management [work] with board directorships’ explains Carl Östring, the current general counsel of Traction, a Swedish investment firm that has active ownership interests in listed and unlisted small and medium-sized companies. In mitigating legal risk as well as keeping the firm compliant with all relevant regulatory matters, Östring has operated with a flexible approach when leading Traction’s internal legal support: ‘We have first expanded and then reduced the legal staff again, fluctuating with the number and development levels of Traction’s holdings’. The team works with the guiding principle of supporting the business in a proactive and cost-efficient way, providing ‘early guidance in a way that has limited external legal spending within the Traction group to fall to very low levels, while still having the network and market insight allowing us to hire relevant top external counsel when needed’. Three highlights of his in-house career include his work on the successful restructuring of the Nasdaq First North listed mining company Drillcon, where he still serves as chairman of the board. During this time he proudly states it has ‘been good for my personal development to take an active part not only in the legal analysis but also the execution and continued growth of the company, which has been very beneficial for the company’s shareholders’. He also highlights his work on the negotiations leading up to the merger of the listed industrial conglomerate Duroc (listed on Nasdaq Stockholm) and International Fibres Group in 2016, where he still serves on the board post-merger, as well as his contribution to the sale of Banking Automation by Traction and its partners in 2017. Of this he recalls: ‘It was very interesting to work with an international board and management in several jurisdictions, where we always managed to find constructive solutions’. He has been involved in a number of other important transactions, helping create a profitable group with a turnover exceeding $275m.