Sir Roger Gifford on his key takeaways from Nordic M&A Forum 2021

15 March 2021

On 4 March, the Swedish Chamber of Commerce welcomed speakers and 200+ guests to the Nordic M&A Forum 2021. The discussions covered the key issues facing Nordic cross-border M&A and financing in 2021, including the future and scale of opportunity in the Nordics and how to succeed in a volatile M&A market post-Brexit and post-pandemic. Sir Roger Gifford, Senior Banker, SEB, and Chair, Green Finance Institute, shares his key takeaways from the event and his view on the long term prospects for financial services in London. 

What are your key takeaways from the Nordic M&A forum?
I felt that both sides are very keen to make cross border M&A a bigger part of the future for both Nordics and the UK. I think the enthusiasm and the positive responses showed that collaborations like AstraZeneca are just one of many and that we can do much more in the area. I think the variety of speakers and the level of speakers were very good, and I look forward to the next one.

Is there anything you wish to add on the long term prospects for financial services in London?
I feel cautiously optimistic about the future. I don't have a crystal ball but, like we were saying in the session, financial services, just like other industries, have to adapt to survive. Over the medium term, I will see less booking of loan assets in London, and more booking of investment assets. We will see more private wealth services and less of the big traditional banking services, with more focus on the cluster that London is and making that stronger and even more valuable than it is today. Private Wealth Management and asset management is a really promising area for London. I think there's a big discussion to be had about talent, visas, expat arrangements, and maintaining London's huge advantage in this area for financial services. And I see more specialisation as the role of data assumes greater and greater importance in how we live and work and do business.