---
title: "Cross-border M&A at Translink Miami | Mike Dinan, Fredrik Ullberg | Negotiator 190"
titleOriginal: "Cross-border M&A Translink Miami | Mike Dinan Fredrik Ullberg | Negotiator 190"
episodeNumber: "190"
guest: "Mike Dinan, Fredrik Ullberg"
datePublished: 2023-05-05
duration: "16:26"
youtube: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbmvNQng4PE"
originalLanguage: "en"
topics: ["ma_exits","investing_markets","leadership_governance"]
subtitleMethod: "none"
provenance: "Owner page assembled from YouTube metadata, the neuvottelija.fi episode record and a MacWhisper transcription of the original English audio. The chapter marks are the publisher's own list as released with the video, each verified to fall within ten seconds of a real transcript cue. No caption track is published here. The transcription lost sentence casing and punctuation across two stretches — the Nordic ID passage around 02:52 and the takeover-code passage around 12:45 — which were restored in the cleaned cue file without changing the words. Three proper names the transcription mangled were verified against public sources before correction: Translink International's chairman, Nordic ID's chairman and the Florida Panthers player named in the hockey footage. One name in the client-testimony passage could not be verified and was left exactly as transcribed, and is not repeated in this summary."
fiCanonical: "https://www.neuvottelija.fi/fi/episodes/279-cross-border-ma-translink-miami-mike-dinan-fredrik-ullberg-n"
canonical: https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep190-cross-border-ma-translink-miami-dinan-ullberg/
---
# Cross-border M&A at Translink Miami | Mike Dinan, Fredrik Ullberg | Negotiator 190

English subtitles are not available on this page. This is an episode summary, not a curated transcript.

## Chapters

- [00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbmvNQng4PE&t=0s) Sami Miettinen, partner at Translink Corporate Finance, at the Miami Directors' Meeting
- [00:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbmvNQng4PE&t=40s) Dinan & Company, one of the most successful mid-market investment banks in the USA
- [01:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbmvNQng4PE&t=60s) Mike Dinan, founder of Dinan & Company, on cooperating with Translink and with private equity and industrial clients
- [01:48](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbmvNQng4PE&t=108s) Ignacio Macias, chairman of CECOP North America, on buy-side cross-border dynamics: trust and coordinated due diligence
- [03:20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbmvNQng4PE&t=200s) Mike Dinan on the very close relationship between investment banker and client
- [04:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbmvNQng4PE&t=255s) Dinan & Company's expansion from buy-side to sell-side and cross-border M&A, and the benefits of global coverage
- [05:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbmvNQng4PE&t=300s) US private equity and industrial companies looking to do deals in Europe; Finland and the Nordics are well regarded
- [06:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbmvNQng4PE&t=400s) Mike Dinan on the thrill of investment banking and getting his hands in grease on a 1967 Corvette
- [08:18](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbmvNQng4PE&t=498s) Let's go Panthers — NHL with Juuso Marttinen, and Suora Broadcast Finland-Sweden
- [09:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbmvNQng4PE&t=570s) Fredrik Ullberg, managing director of Translink Sweden, on the Miami conference and Miss Group's 21 buy-side acquisitions
- [10:49](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbmvNQng4PE&t=649s) Sweden-Finland as a cross-border deal channel. IK Partners' Renta double acquisition in 2023, and Translink's industry groups
- [12:06](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbmvNQng4PE&t=726s) Fredrik Ullberg claims Sweden plays ice hockey better than Finland
- [12:20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbmvNQng4PE&t=740s) Sami Miettinen on international public takeovers: Brady Corporation and Nordic ID, and the importance of the chairman
- [13:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbmvNQng4PE&t=810s) Risto Siilasmaa's specific communication in the Nokia-Alcatel-Lucent merger
- [14:20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbmvNQng4PE&t=860s) Using equity offerings to finance acquisitions — the Tamtron and Lahti Precision case
- [15:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbmvNQng4PE&t=930s) David Strempel's mid-market M&A statistics and the balance of global deals
- [16:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbmvNQng4PE&t=975s) Outro — what do you think of English-language content?

## Summary

Episode 190 is the channel's first English-language episode: a sixteen-minute field report from
the **Translink Directors' Meeting** in Miami Beach, April 2023, built from two on-site
interviews and a set of deal notes rather than a studio conversation. Miettinen opens with an
apology to Finnish listeners and closes by asking for feedback on whether the format works.

**Mike Dinan**, founder of Dinan & Company, gives the clearest structural account. His firm is
thirty-five years old and was exclusively buy-side for its first twenty-odd years — over 500
buy-side deals executed — before creating a sell-side subsidiary twelve years ago and
affiliating with Translink six or seven years ago to extend internationally. The conference's
distinguishing feature was that Dinan & Company invited its friends from the US private equity
community to hold one-on-one meetings with bankers from the countries that interested them.

**The number to take away** is Dinan's reference point on why Europe matters now: US private
equity holds **$1.5 trillion of dry powder** and is under tremendous pressure to invest it, and
its interest peaks precisely in the soft part of the cycle — which, as the panel observed, is
where Europe was heading while the American cycle ran ahead. Asked about NATO, Dinan is
measured: Finland has always been popular with Americans, and membership can only enhance the
relationship.

**Fredrik Ullberg**, managing partner of Translink Sweden, brings the buy-and-build side. Miss
Group, a five-year client now backed by the UK private equity firm Perwyn, has had **21
acquisitions completed for it in five years** on an exclusive mandate — some in Sweden but
mostly outside it, in Lithuania, Switzerland, Spain, Finland and Norway. On the Sweden–Finland
corridor he is direct: Finland has many good targets, Sweden has the buyers, and more deals will
follow. Two worked examples close the section — Suora Broadcast, which produces Finland's hockey
broadcasts, sold to DMC in a deal backed by the Olsson family known for the Stena group; and
Renta, owned by IK Partners, acquiring two companies almost simultaneously in Finland and
Sweden, with both sellers represented by a Translink company.

**Three deal lessons come from Miettinen's own notes.** First, in the Finnish public takeover
system the chairman is the key person: in Brady Corporation's offer for Nordic ID — the first
ever First North Nasdaq transaction in Finland done in the public market — chairman Jorma Lalla
bore a very high burden in communication and in handling the matter. His tip is to play it by
the book, with the caveat that at the time there was no book; as of 2022 First North companies
are obliged to work with the Helsinki takeover code and its detailed timetable. Second, from
interviewing Risto Siilasmaa during Nokia's acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent: precise communication
through the target's CEO to its board — "I want you to take this offer to your board" — is a
firm statement that is deliberately not an ultimatum. Third, a freshly listed company can use
listing as acquisition currency: Translink Finland listed Tamtron in an IPO raising over €10
million, and almost immediately afterwards Tamtron acquired Lahti Precision, part-financed
through a directed share offering. The trade-off is stated plainly — being listed also opens you
to public takeovers.

**The client testimony** came from Ignacio Macias, chairman of CECOP, and produced the practical
advice worth keeping: trust the advisor; handle the LOI carefully and be willing to play the
waiting game, because what matters is closing; and respect local rules and customs, since a deal
runs far more smoothly when parties can use their own language with the counterparties. The
episode ends on David Strempel's slides showing the mid-market deal trend splitting roughly three
ways between Europe, North America, and the global East and South, with cross-border volumes
rising despite a down market in 2023.

## A note on the source

This is an English-language episode and the cleaned cue file is a `.en.srt`. The MacWhisper
transcription lost sentence casing and punctuation across two stretches — the Nordic ID passage
around 02:52 and the takeover-code passage around 12:45 — which were restored without changing
the words. Three proper names the transcription mangled were verified against public sources
before correction: Translink International's chairman, Nordic ID's chairman and the Florida
Panthers player named in the hockey footage. One name in the client-testimony passage could not
be verified; it was left exactly as transcribed and is not repeated here.

## Watch

The recording lives on the Neuvottelija channel:
[Cross-border M&A Translink Miami | Mike Dinan Fredrik Ullberg | Negotiator 190](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbmvNQng4PE).
A Finnish-site edition of this episode is published at
[www.neuvottelija.fi](https://www.neuvottelija.fi/fi/episodes/279-cross-border-ma-translink-miami-mike-dinan-fredrik-ullberg-n).

## Explore the ideas in depth

- [How to Sell a Company in Finland: An M&A Banker's Guide to a Clean Exit](https://www.neuvottelija.com/guides/how-to-sell-a-company-in-finland/): A practical guide to selling a company in Finland and the Nordics — the process phase by phase, share deal vs asset deal, valuation, due diligence, buyer types, deal structures, taxes on the sale, minority squeeze-outs and the ownership context that shapes every exit. Grounded in Neuvottelija conversations and Translink M&A practice.
- [Nordic SaaS Valuation & M&A: How AI Reprices Software Companies](https://www.neuvottelija.com/guides/nordic-saas-valuation-and-ma/): How software companies in the Nordics are valued and sold as AI moves inference into the cost of goods sold — where multiples stand in mid-2026, the metrics that get repriced, why vertical SaaS defends its premium, AI due diligence, and the shift from seats to outcomes. Grounded in Translink's SaaS valuation work and Neuvottelija conversations.
- [Private equity in Finland: active ownership, growth and AI-assisted investor relations](https://www.neuvottelija.com/guides/private-equity-finland-active-ownership-and-ai/): A practical guide to venture capital, growth and buyouts, ownership economics, risks and investor communication — with Pia Santavirta’s Neuvottelija 94 interview and Sami Miettinen’s March 2026 FVCA workshop.

---

Cite as: Sami Miettinen, Neuvottelija — Cross-border M&A at Translink Miami | Mike Dinan, Fredrik Ullberg | Negotiator 190, https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep190-cross-border-ma-translink-miami-dinan-ullberg/, 2023-05-05. For quotes include episode 190 and timestamp.