Investors, investment managers and others with direct or attributed interests of 5% or more of any Hong Kong listed company are subject to Hong Kong’s substantial shareholder disclosure regime. Inadvertent breaches of the regime are common, largely because of its complexity and investors’ misapprehensions of the requirements. A review of enforcement actions over the last year indicates an increasingly aggressive approach by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) ...
An exemption from “acting in concert” is available under the Hong Kong Codes on Takeovers and Mergers and Share Repurchases (Takeovers Code) to entities within a large financial group which manage investment accounts on a discretionary basis and which maintain acceptable levels of segregation regarding confidential information through Chinese Walls ...
The UK's Financial Services Authority (FSA) has issued a Feedback Statement on its discussion paper DP05/4 "Hedge funds: A discussion of risk and regulatory engagement" and has urged firms to focus on the risks posed by side letters "which will remain an area of supervisory focus". Side letters have become a common feature for institutional investors investing in hedge funds with the result that such investors receive preferential treatment and more information than other investors ...
At its Singapore 2006 AGM, ISDA announced the publication of a new set of definitions – the ISDA 2006 Fund Derivative Definitions (Fund Definitions). The Fund Definitions are intended to provide basis terminology for use in confirmations of derivatives transactions linked to interests in various types of pooled investment vehicles, such as hedge funds and mutual funds, for which a liquid secondary market may not exist ...
March of 2006 will make a mark in history as the date in which the people of Bolivia have manifested, through the National Congress, their irrevocable and unequivocal decision of modifying the political structure of the Republic by simultaneously calling to a Constituent Assembly, with the purpose of designing a new Political Constitution, and to a binding referendum on departmental autonomies. Six presidents have passed since the beginning of the new millennium ...
On St Patrick’s Day the Irish Revenue Commissioners issued a communication, through CREST, in relation to CFDs. In the communication the Revenue said they believe the underlying hedging transaction behind a CFD, where the broker acquires Irish shares, may not fall within the relevant stamp duty exemptions that the brokers are claiming. If the Revenue are correct the broker has a 1% stamp duty liability on this hedging transaction ...
Scotland's new procurement regulations came into force on 31 January 2006, meaning the country is covered by a separate set of procurement rules than the rest of the UK. This is a major change from the previous regime. The Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations and the Utilities Contracts (Scotland) Regulations, both 2006, were introduced to ensure the procurement regime in Scotland complies with the European Union's new directives on procurement in the public and utilities sectors ...
China presents enormous opportunities for the wealth management industry. Since the opening up of China’s banking and other financial industries to foreign investments, foreign banks, securities companies, insurers and fund management companies have sought to establish presence in this market through the setting up of representative offices, branches, foreign direct investments and joint venture companies ...
November and December 2005 saw the Hong Kong real estate investment trust (“REIT”) market burst into life, with the listing of three REITs on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong – The Link REIT (Hong Kong retail and car parks), Prosperity REIT (Hong Kong commercial) and GZI REIT (office buildings in Guangdong, PRC) ...
In 2006, the SFC plans to conduct another investigation into licensed investment advisers. This follows a report issued in February 2005, in which the SFC noted industry practices that posed “serious regulatory concerns”. It is timely, then, for investment advisers to review their adherence to the standards of conduct expected of them by the SFC. We set out below some of the practices that investment advisers should adopt to ensure regulatory compliance ...
The China Securities Regulatory Commission (“CSRC”) and State Administration of Foreign Exchange (“SAFE”) have, in recent months, issued consultation drafts of proposed amendments to the two major regulations governing Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (“QFIIs”): and . According to the draft regulations, certain amendments are to be implemented. Under the existing regulations, QFIIs are subject to relatively long investment lock-up periods ...
As it is considered as of general interest, we would like to mention that on December 30, 2005, the Federal Official Gazette published an executive order amending Article 117 and Article 118 of the Financial Institutions Law ...
In order to speed up the application in Mexico of the concept of “immunity” proposed in a recent bill containing amendments to the Federal Economic Competition Law (the “Law”), a full session of the Commission, on January 26, 2006, approved the “Internal Policies to Grant Immunity to Those Cooperating in Investigations of Monopolistic Practices.” The policy will work as follows: 1 ...
Great fanfare surrounded the introduction of the Freedom of Information Act and the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 a year ago. The FOI legislation was hailed as a success in changing the culture of government. But while most public sector organisations have now come to grips with the workings of the FOI legislation, many have overlooked an associated set of regulations that came into effect at the start of this summer ...
Scottish Enterprise has a number of schemes to make it easier for small to medium-sized businesses to access growth funding, such as a loan, equity finance - where the investors take shares in your company - or a combination of the two ...
The 18th Session of the Standing Committee of the 10th National People’s Congress adopted the amended Company Law of the of the People’s Republic of China on 27 October 2005. President Hu Jintao promulgated the Law on the same date. The Law, which enters into effect on 1 January 2006, is a significant reform of the Company Law. It simplifies company establishment requirements and statutorily expands the rights of shareholders in PRC companies ...
At the 18th Session of the Standing Committee of the 10th National People’s Congress held on 27 October 2005 amendments to the Securities Law of the of the People’s Republic of China were adopted. The amendments, which were promulgated by President Hu Jintao on 27 October 2005 and enter into effect on 1 January 2006, represent a significant reform of the Law which was first promulgated in 1999 ...
The State Council passed the Regulations of the People's Republic of China for the Administration of Production Licences for Industrial Products on 29 June 2005. The Regulations were promulgated by premier Wen Jiabao on 9 July 2005 and entered into effect on 1 September 2005. The Regulations repeal the Trial Regulations for Industrial Product Production Permits promulgated by the State Council on 7 April 1984 ...
The State Council Information Office and the Ministry of Information Industry issued the Regulations for the Administration of Internet News Information Services on 25 September 2005. The Regulations, which entered into effect on the date of their promulgation, impose licensing and recordal requirements on providers of online news information services in China ...
On Wednesday 21 December, Ms Justice Laffoy issued her long-awaited judgment in Fyffes’ multi-million euro insider dealing action against Jim Flavin and his company Development Capital Corporation plc (DCC) and two of its subsidiaries. The decision follows 87 days of evidence, which closed in July 2005. Ms Justice Laffoy ruled that the defendants were not in possession of price sensitive information at the time they sold their shares in Fyffes and as such, no civil liability to Fyffes arose ...
Great fanfare surrounded the introduction of the Freedom of Information Act and the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 a year ago. The FOI legislation was hailed as a success in changing the culture of government. But while most public sector organisations have now come to grips with the workings of the FOI legislation, many have overlooked an associated set of regulations that came into effect at the start of this summer ...
The Government has recently announced changes to the proposed regime of confirmation by directors of compliance by a company with its obligations. This note explains the background to the announcement and comments on the new proposals. Background - 2003 Act From the time that the Companies (Auditing and Accounting) Act, 2003 was first published there was considerable and widespread concern voiced about the proposed regime for Directors’ Compliance Statements ...
On December 6, 2005 the British Columbia Supreme Court handed down its decision in the case of Hupacasath First Nation v. British Columbia(1). In this decision, the court held that Crown’s duty to consult with first nations, as articulated by the Supreme Court of Canada in Haida Nation(2) and Taku River,(3) extends to government decisions regarding planning, development and use of private land ...
Persons responsible for filing annual returns for the following types of companies should be aware of this commencement order: Most private unlimited companies; Private companies not trading for the acquisition of gain by the members; Companies not having a share capital which are formed for an object that is charitable and is under the control of a religion recognised under Article 44 of the Constitution; and Companies which are exempted from certain filing requirements by order of the Co
Judgement of the Court of First Instance in case T-28/03 – Holcim (Deutschland) AG v. European Commission. By Decision 94/815/EC of 30 November 1994 the Commission ordered Alsen Breitenburg Zement- und Kalkwerke GmbH and Nordcement AG (in 1997 these companies merged to become Alsen AG, now Holcim (Deutschland) AG) (hereinafter the "Applicant" or "Applicants") to pay total fines of EUR 3.841 million for infringement of Article 85 of the EC Treaty ...
