Enron, WorldCom, Tyco International and Parmalat: names associated with tales of corruption, mismanagement and financial irregularity. But these names are now also synonymous with something else: a raft of reforms to company regulation worldwide. Two such reforms being felt in the UK are the Companies (Audit, Investigations and Community Enterprise) Act 2004, and the FTSE Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) Corporate Governance Index Series ...
This paper is about the role of the pension and benefits lawyer in the context of a merger or acquisition. The paper profiles several recent high profile corporate transactions where pension issues played unexpectedly significant roles. These provide potent examples of how the pension and benefits lawyer should be consulted early on in the transaction process ...
General overview What legislation governs M&A activity in your jurisdiction? M&A activities in Taiwan are primarily governed by the Enterprise Mergers and Acquisitions Law, the Securities and Exchange Law, the Company Law, the Fair Trade Law and the Regulations Governing Tender Offers for Purchase of the Securities of a Public Company ...
2004 has again been a very busy year on the M&A and Corporate Finance front, with the building materials, financial services, media and the property sectors dominating. The take private arena has been particularly active. Having been privatised in 2002, eircom was floated again earlier in the year with a market capitalisation of €1.1 billion ...
Outsourcing is not a new phenomenon. As business processes become more complex and costly many Irish companies are concentrating on their core activities and handing over responsibility for running expensive systems and managing large numbers of employees to expert third parties, for an agreed price. Irish companies are also increasingly outsourcing for strategic reasons, looking to leverage the specialist expertise of service providers to open new product and market opportunities ...
In part two of his article on Near and Offshore Outsourcings Dominic Conlon of A&L Goodbody sets out a list of issues which should be considered by any company looking to outsource its service requirements to a provider based in a foreign jurisdiction ...
Preamble In Quebec, most collective agreements contain a “loss of seniority and employment” clause according to which the signatories agree to terminate the employment of an employee in various circumstances, in particular after an absence of a specific period of time due to disability or illness. Collective agreements usually also provide for a benefit plan for an employee who is absent due to disability or illness, or the protection of his or her employment during this period ...
Limited Companies (LCs) and Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) are corporate structures that exist as separate legal entities and afford members limited liability. LCs and LLPs can enter into contracts, hold property, sue and be sued, grant fixed and floating charges and are subject to similar disclosure, accounting and filing requirements. The main distinction between them is that while an LC is treated as a taxable entity an LLP’s members are taxed as individuals ...
Foreign arbitral awards and court judgments in Lithuania may be enforced only after having been recognised and authorised for enforcement by the Court of Appeals of Lithuania, an authority empowered by the State to recognise awards/judgments and authorise their enforcement ...
Summary • The directors’ duty of care (objective standard) • The directors’ duty of loyalty does not extend to creditors • The duty of care extends to other beneficiaries beyond the corporation • Corporate governance = shield against directors’ liability • In the United States, directors are forced to contribute their personal funds toward settlements • Changes are made to the proposed corporate governance rules and guidelines • Our April 2004 bulletin was updated in January 2005 to ref
This will depend on how much money you are trying to raise and the number of people to whom you intend to offer the shares. The biggest change to the current AIM prospectus will occur if you are raising more than EUR 2.5 million (about £1.7 million) and you are offering shares to more than 100 people. If that is the case, the prospective directive (PD) will apply and the company will need to produce a PD prospectus ...
With more than 13 million working days a year lost to stress at an estimated cost of £3.8 billion to the economy, managing employees’ anxiety levels has never been more important Although the figure of half a million workers in the UK experiencing work-related stress at intolerable levels appears manageable, this is really only the tip of the iceberg with up to five million people feeling 'very' or 'extremely' stressed by work ...
“Financial assistance” includes granting credit, lending money, providing security for or guaranteeing a loan. (This is the definition in relation to connected transactions, but a similar concept would apply generally.) We will first discuss the treatment of price-sensitive information, in respect of which there is a general obligation ...
THE LAW OF DEFAMATION: A PRIMER By Thomas S. Woods* INTRODUCTION Editors, publishers, writers, advertisers and all who are involved in the dissemination of information in written or electronic form should have at least an elementary grasp of the principles of the law of defamation. It is often said that a little information can be a dangerous thing. That truism is difficult to dispute ...
The UK press reported recently (August 2004) that an unnamed Lloyds TSB customer, backed by the Lloyds TSB Group Union, has complained to the Information Commissioner (the UK equivalent of the Irish Data Protection Commissioner) in respect of the transfer abroad of “sensitive personal data” 1 held by Lloyds about its customers. The government-appointed information commissioner has been asked to rule on whether Lloyds TSB is acting illegally ...
On 26 October 2004, Lithuanian Parliament adopted the Law on Works Councils which came into effect from 11 November 2004. In this memorandum please find short comments regarding the procedure for formation of national works councils, their role in the enterprise, obligations and additional legal possibilities of employers related to works councils ...
Synopsis - Trial lawyers often find themselves defending one of several defendants in a lawsuit. Depending on the claims and defenses in the case, they may need to communicate with lawyers defending other parties to discuss defense strategy and understand the case from different perspectives. It is critically important for trial lawyers to know and understand which communications are protected from discovery ...
May a manufacturer fix the price at which its distributor may sell its products (resale price maintenance)? Article 10 of the Federal Enconomic Competition Law sets out in seven paragraphs the activities that are classified as relative monopolistic practices, provided that: (a) the agent in question has substantial economic power in the relevant market; and (b) the purpose of effect of the activity is, or may be, to improperly displace other agents from the market, significantly impede their
Current economic competition legislation has imposed new rules on economic agents that operate in the national market. These rules have changed the nature of the relationships which business may have with competitors, suppliers, distributors, and customers ...
Employers often find themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place when trying to manage employees who are pregnant. If the employer gets it wrong, he faces the potential for claims of sex discrimination and the possibility of a finding of automatic unfair dismissal. This can not only tarnish his reputation but hit him hard in the pocket too ...
In this article, we have summarised several recent employment cases that address the issues of maternity protection, summary dismissal, notice of termination of employment, payable wages and vicarious liability. Some of these cases ascertain the established position of the law whilst others shed new lights on some areas of uncertainties. The case of Sun Min v. Hong Kong Ming Wah Shipping Co. Ltd ...
1. Overview of recent corporate governance reforms a. Recent initiatives There have been numerous recent changes in Hong Kong in relation to corporate governance matters, extending well beyond legislation and nonbinding codes. The roles of relevant regulators have also been examined and proposed changes made. As far as legislation is concerned, the most significant change is the introduction of the Securities and Futures Ordinance, which came into force on April 1 2003 ...
On October 29, 2004, the Supreme Court of Canada issued its much anticipated decision in the case of Peoples Department Stores (Trustee of) vs. Wise ...
Even if an idea for a new invention only exists in the mind of an employee, that idea belongs to the company…unless the contract of employment clearly states otherwise! The importance of ensuring that contracts of employment cover this area has been brought into sharp focus by a recent case in Texas, where the rules are very similar to those in the UK ...
