You are the general counsel of a public company and your CEO calls to tell you that the board is thinking about putting the company up for sale. He wants to talk. There are many important considerations for the board and management team when selling a company, and one of those is whether to sell to a financial buyer or a strategic buyer ...
It is hard to believe that the Dodd-Frank Act (“Act”) celebrated only its first birthday on July 21, 2011. It seems like it has been around a lot longer than that sometimes. Although the Act has already reshaped the regulatory regime for both financial and many non-financial entities, in actuality, its impact is just now beginning to be felt. This is the first of what is sure to be many articles examining the Act and its impact on community banks ...
Although the concept of a limited liability company has been around since 1977 when Wyoming enacted a limited liability company act, the popularity of the limited liability company has primarily grown during the last 15 years. In August 1994, the Uniform Limited Liability Company Act was adopted by the National Conference of Commissioners in an effort to create more uniformity among state limited liability company legislation ...
By way of follow-up to our January 2011 article on the NC Lien Law Legislation and relevant case law, we want to report two recent developments. On July 19, 2011, the North Carolina Court of Appeals again addressed lien priority issues when it reversed the trial court’s entry of judgment on the pleadings in favor of Preserve Holdings, LLC (which purchased property out of foreclosure in January 2008 from the original plaintiff, Wachovia) ...
Commentators and the market have lauded Rio Tinto's M&A credentials in relation to its bid for Riversdale Mining. Part of the reason is that the bid was made against a backdrop of the top two shareholders holding more than 40% of the target and not entering into pre-bid agreements with Rio Tinto ...
On Monday August 22, 2011, the FDIC, Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) and Florida’s Office of Financial Regulation announced civil money penalties of $10.9 million and a two-year deferred prosecution agreement against Ocean Bank (“the Bank”) in Miami, FL. The penalty represents approximately seven percent of the Bank’s book value ...
As Ashton Kutcher has learned, the Federal Trade Commission takes online endorsements seriously. Recently, the actor and avid Twitterer edited an online issue of Details magazine that plugged several technology start-ups without clarifying that Kutcher had invested in many of them. Kutcher also endorses many of these companies on his Twitter account, which boasts almost 7.5 million followers ...
Pursuant to an order recently issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), the dollar amount thresholds in the definition of “qualified client” under Rule 205-3 under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, as amended (the “Advisers Act”), are set to increase effective as of September 19, 2011 ...
On April 4, 2011, the Honourable Benoît Morin, speaking for the Court of Appeal, with Justices Michel Robert and Jacques A. Léger concurring, issued a judgment co nfirming the decision of the Superior Court rendered on April 22, 2009 by the Honourable Jean-Yves Lalonde. The case arose out of the bankruptcy of Stonehaven Country Club Resort & Spa L.P. (“Stonehaven”)(1) ; the Court had to rule on the validity of Investissement Québec’s claim against the bankrupt co mpany ...
Advances in digital technology have created a virtually limitless supply of content available in “byte-sized” forms, where original works are being increasingly “atomized” into smaller, digestible digital content pieces for consumers and content providers alike ...
Contents * Foreign Reporting: a Costly Oversight, * The Act Respecting the Legal Publicity of Enterprises and Limited Partnerships: We Win, We Lose… Maybe! * What Should You Do When Tax Authorities Pay a Visit to Your Client? * Beware of Hybrid Sales Transactions Involving Assets and Shares! FOREIGN REPORTING: A COSTLY OVERSIGHT Pascale Blanchet [email protected] Luc Pariseau lpariseau@lavery ...
On May 4, 2011, an important Bill was presented by the Minister for Finance, Mr. Alain Paquet. The effect of Bill 7, entitled An Act to amend various legislative provisions concerning the financial sector, is, among other things, to amend section 115 of the Act respecting the distribution of financial products and services (“ARDFPS”) and to add sections 115.1 to 115.9 ARDFPS ...
Communications policy 1. Policy - Summarise the regulatory framework for the telecoms and media sector. What is the policymaking procedure? In connection with the regulatory framework for the telecoms and media sector in Chile, there are two general laws to take into account, the General Telecommunications Law (the GTL) and the National Television Council Law (the NTCL) ...
On 30 March 2011, Bank of Italy published a set of supervisory provisions concerning banks’ remuneration and incentive policies and practices (the “New Regulations”) with the purpose to implement the European Directive 2010/76/EC of 24 November 2010 (“Capital Requirements Directive III” or “CRD III Directive”) ...
New Off-shore Loan Reporting Regulations – Bank Indonesia is to commence imposing fines as of July 2011, for the June 2011 reporting period. Note that for corporations, there is no minimum loan reporting limitation, whereas for individuals, only loans or groups of loans which together exceed US$200,000 or its equivalent must be reported.Bank Indonesia keeps track of foreign loan obligations for statistical purposes and to assist it in formulating monetary policy ...
The Royal Decree of 3 March 2011 regarding the evolution of the supervisory architecture of the financial sector (“Koninklijk besluit betreffende de evolutie van de toezichtsarchitectuur voor de financiële sector” / “Arrêté royal mettant en oeuvre l'évolution des structures de contrôle du secteur financier”) (the “Royal Decree”) entered into force ...
The Memorandum of Understanding entered into between the Portuguese State and the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the European Commission (“the Troika”) sets forth a range of goals and measures that shall be implemented by the Portuguese State in order to promote competition in the markets as a means to improve economic growth ...
The Autorité des marchés financiers (the “AMF”) published a draft Commercial Practices Guideline, which is available for public consultation on the website of the AMF until April 22, 2011. This Guideline constitutes a statement of principle on the expectations of the AMF concerning the sound commercial practices of insurers and financial institutions ...
1 Collateral What types of collateral are available? Collateral used in secured financings can also be used in project financings ...
As expected, the FDIC moved against the former key officers of Washington Mutual Bank, namely its former President/CEO, COO and Home Loans President in March. The FDIC believes that these three people are responsible for WaMu’s higher risk lending program, which accounted for the bank’s huge losses. It is reported that the damages being sought against the defendants may be in excess of $900 million, which should grab anyone’s attention ...
In March 2011, the Fourth Circuit issued a decision that has potentially substantial impact on the banking community at large, especially as it relates to decisions on whether to extend credit to a debtor after he or she receives a discharge in bankruptcy. In Maryland v. Ciotti (In re Ciotti), 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 4492 (4th Cir. Mar ...
Last Thursday and Friday, I was in Charlotte for the UNC School of Law Banking Institute. The conference is very deserving of its great reputation; it was very informative (Albeit after almost 6 hours of Dodd-Frank analysis on Thursday, I was just glad to be able to stand.) ...
Introduction The Great Recession is producing unprecedented levels of foreclosures1¡ªdeeds©/in©/lieu of foreclosure, bankruptcies, receiverships and other transactions in which financial institutions acquire control of real estate assets that must then be managed and sold ...
st1/:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } The long-awaited Royal Decree of 7 December 2010 on Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) (vastgoedbevaks/sicafi)(the “Decree”) entered into force. The new legislation brings major changes. This article gives an overview of the most important legal changes, which can broadly be categorized into four topic areas. First, the Decree establishes a moreflexible procedure for raising capital ...
In its most basic form, the guaranty is an agreement (importantly it is the guarantor’s separate contract with lender) by one party to be responsible for the debt or obligations of someone else. We all know it and love it – it is the lender’s friend. But like so many friendships, when it is built on a fundamental misunderstanding or problem, a train wreck ensues and we feel the pain ...
