About

Daniel Jilkén is one of the pre-eminent lawyers in the energy sector in the Nordic region owing to his impact on the Solör Bioenergy Group, which comprises of bioenergy companies providing essential energy services in Sweden and Norway. A Swedish lawyer who started his career at Deloitte working as a tax lawyer in Sweden and the US, he went on to amass experience on not only tax issues but a wide range of corporate and commercial law issues, eventually moving on to the Roschier law firm. He claims that ‘by moving from a tax advisory firm to a law firm some clients chose to leave their old legal advisors and purchase all tax and legal advice from me’, and one of those clients was the district heating company Solör Bioenergy Group. Over time he worked closer and closer with the business and in 2014 was integral to the Group acquiring two Swedish companies, both larger entities than Solör Bioenergi at the time. Jilkén also assisted the Group in issuing a bond to US investors to finance these acquisitions, and in 2015 was offered to join group management and invest in the company. The majority shareholder of the group, the majority of the board members and the Group CEO are situated in Zurich, Switzerland, which made it natural for him to move there. Having an impact on the company’s business, Jilkén explains presiding over several important transactions on the company’s behalf. He highlights one particular litigation ‘of key importance’ in which he and his legal team successfully appealed the Norwegian Financial Supervisory Authority’s (FSA) decision to delist NOK-denominated bonds from the Oslo Stock Exchange, the first time ever that the Norwegian Ministry of Finance overruled a decision of the FSA. This complex matter involved ‘an enormous effort’ and collaboration, as the NSA, Oslo Stock Exchange, and the follow-up work to list SEK-dominated bonds and refinancing, repurchase NBI entity and take out the two listed bonds was ‘gigantic’, consisting of coordinating twelve law firms in five jurisdictions, allowing the group to reduce financing costs by almost 50%. ‘The litigation with the Norwegian FSA was very important, and so was the refinancing and repurchase of NBI. In addition to them it could be worthwhile mentioning that we won a tax case in December last year with a value of SEK165m concerning our acquisitions in Sweden 2014. Earlier this year we made an acquisition of the Pemco Group that offers a broader range of heating solutions than Solör Bioenergy, which will be very important for our organic growth in the Nordic region’, he states. Ever since he joined the Group, Jilkén has been part of the group management, and is present in all board meetings and all operational group management meetings, speaking to the group CEO on a ‘more or less daily basis’. This, he explains, means that he is ‘part of all important decisions, and can provide legal guidance in all matters concerning the Group. This has resulted in a clear reduction of compliance issues and litigation. It has also been positive for the general business, as I can provide solutions to issues in the operations that engineers or finance people are not aware of’. A nominating source highlights his importance to the rapid expansion of the company, explaining this included ‘several complex M&A transactions, debt financing through high-yield bond issues, equity financing through several private placements, as well as complex and extensive intra-group tax and corporate structuring’. Known to have been ‘key in the planning, execution and implementation of these transactions’ he has attracted praise from nominating sources who explained their ‘excellent experience’ in dealing with him on a number of issues. In addition to his outstanding legal career, Jilkén has authored of “Kupongskattelagen – En kommentar” a commentary to the Swedish coupon tax act, along with numerous articles on Swedish and international tax law.