About

Listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange, Essity is a leading global hygiene and health company having about 47,000 employees and net sales of approximately SEK118.5bn in 2018. Mikael Schmidt heads the legal department as senior vice president, group function legal affairs, general counsel and secretary to the board. Thanks to the legal team’s contribution, the company was listed on Nasdaq Stockholm Stock exchange after a successful split from SCA. Furthermore, the team worked on the SEK27bn acquisition of BSN Medical and the integration of its legal entities into Essity, creating one of the largest companies on the Swedish stock exchange with over SEK200bn market cap 2019. The Essity legal team has supported the organic growth by assisting in investment projects all over the world, recently investing in factories in Germany, the Netherlands, US, Brazil and Malaysia as examples, and has been instrumental in fundraising inter alia through issuing corporate bonds on the Luxembourg stock exchange and establishing itself as a leader in corporate governance and sustainability, being included in a number of important indices. Recently, Essity has been able to achieve a number of important deals as part of its strategic agenda. For instance, Essity is presently divesting its 50% stake in the partly owned company SCA Yildiz in Turkey to the other part owner Yildiz. The transaction is subject to customary regulatory approval by the competition authorities and is expected to be finalised in the second quarter of 2019.