ENSafrica’s 2016 Anti-Bribery and Corruption Survey Results Overview ENSafrica’s third annual anti-bribery and corruption (“ABC”) survey has revealed that 39% of respondents have experienced incidents of bribery or corruption in the last 24 months. The key question addressed in the survey was whether or not companies are putting proportionate measures in place to deal with the rising risks of bribery and corruption ...
The credit industry in South Africa is significant and lucrative. According to the National Credit Regulator’s Consumer Credit Market Report for the first quarter of 2016, South Africa’s total outstanding gross debtors’ book for consumers for the quarter ended March 2016 was a staggering R1.66-trillion, in respect of which unsecured credit accounted for R165.16-billion ...
According to latest media reports, the governments of Serbia and Bulgaria have agreed on the formulation of a new memorandum for the task of building a gas pipeline between the two countries, during a recent meeting of the group for gas connections in Central and South East Europe that was held in Budapest ...
There’s certainly been a great deal of litigation around the trade mark ClearVu in South Africa – passing-off proceedings before the High Court, an appeal from that judgment to the Supreme Court of Appeal, and proceedings before the Advertising Standards Authority (“ASA”). Now there’s another judgment, one that deals with an opposition to a trade mark application for ClearVu ...
The Philippine chapter of The International Comparative Legal Guide to: Patents 2017 was contributed by SyCipLaw partners Enrique T. Manuel and Vida M. Panganiban-Alindogan. Mr. Manuel heads the firm’s Intellectual Property department. The chapter includes information on patent enforcement, patent amendment, licensing, patent term extension, patent prosecution and opposition, border control measures, Antitrust Law and inequitable conduct, and current developments ...
Maria Ostashenko, ALRUD Partner, and Ksenia Erokhina, Senior Attorney, contributed to Comparative legal Guide to Outsourcing 2016. Within collaboration with the publishing house ALRUD specialists have prepared the chapter devoted to outsourcing and its regulation in Russia. The chapter has comprehensiblequestion-answer format ...
The Mexican government announced the second bid of Round 2 on August 23, 2016. This will be the seventh upstream bid round in Mexico since passage of the energy reform in mid-2014. The new bid round (named Round 2.2), comprises 12 onshore blocks for exploration in the Burgos and Southeastern Basins, covering collectively 5,006 km2 , with prospective resources of approximately 643.2 million barrels of crude equivalent and an original volume of approximately 93 ...
The August 2016 issue of the Asian Legal Business (ALB) Asia Edition includes a regional update by SyCipLaw partner Maria Teresa Mercado-Ferrer entitled “A Need to Clarify Powers of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority and Local Government Units Relative to Peza-Registered BPO Companies”. The regional update can be found on page 15.Read the full ALB August 2016 issue for free ...
Pierre Denis, Étienne Brassard, Benjamin David Gross and Sibylle Ferreira, whose practices focus on business law, financing and aeronautics, contributed to the development of a Q&A guide entitled Aviation finance in Canada: overview and published in the first edition of Practical Law’s Aviation Finance Global Guide ...
The Act of 22 July 2016 Amending the Energy Law and Certain Other Acts was published on 2 August 2016. The act is intended to eliminate the black market in fuels, strengthen competition on the market, and improve Poland’s energy security. The amendments introduced by the act primarily concern the market for natural gas and liquid fuels ...
On July the 27th 2016, Law No. 20.936 that establishes New Power Transmission Systems and creates an Independent Coordinating Body for the National Power System (the “Transmission Law” or “New Law”) was published. Its stated objectives are to ensure that transmission does not become an obstacle to power generation, increase competition in the electrical market and boost the development of non-conventional renewable energies ...
Timeline 20 August 2013: The South African National Assembly passes the Protection of Personal Information Bill [B9D of 2009] (“the Bill”) to give effect to the constitutional right to privacy. 19 November 2013: The Bill is signed into law by President Jacob Zuma and gazetted as the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (“POPI”) ...
The decision by the International Trademark Association (“INTA”) to host a major meeting in Cape Town – apparently the first INTA conference to take place on African soil – is highly significant. It certainly says a great deal about the continent's growing economic importance. The conference takes place on 1 – 2 September 2016 and it’s entitled “Building Africa with Brands” ...
Implementation of Prakas on minimum registered capital of banking and financial institutions,Circular № B7-016-117 C.L, dated 16 June 2016This Circular, issued on 16 June 2016, aims at implementing Prakas №B7-016-117 on Minimum Registered Capital of Banking and Financial Institutions (“BFIs”), dated 22 March 2016 (“Prakas №B7-016-117”), in relation to procedures for increasing the minimum registered capital requirements of BFIs ...
Media outlets have recently been reporting on the possibility that Nikola Tesla Airport will acquire Sava Centar (SC), with the purpose of turning it into its company headquarters. This acquisition would be followed by an investment of over EUR 30 million in the next three years for the building's reconstruction and adaptation ...
The July 2016 issue of the International Financial Law Review (IFLR) included an international briefing article entitled “Renewable energy projects”. The article was contributed by SyCipLaw partner Rafael L. Encarnacion. The article discussed the challenges that the national legal regime poses to foreign investors seeking a higher equity stake for renewable energy projects, and the difficulty of procurement with either-end users or distribution utilities ...
According to latest news reports, Plinovodi – the company managing Slovenian gas pipelines, will be brought under majority state control, while the energy company, Petrol, is due to secure a majority stake in the gas wholesaler Geoplin under a contract signed this month. It should be noted that the Slovenian Sovereign Holding (SSH) and Petrol are currently the largest Geoplin shareholders. Geoplin, in turn, is the sole shareholder of Plinovodi ...
Recent news reports are informing us that an Anglo-Chinese consortium, consisting of British company Scarborough Group International and the Chinese owned China National Electric (CNEEC) company, has signed a contract to build a thermal power plant in Loznica, in the amount of EUR 230 million. The consortium received additional financial support from the China Development Bank, while the Chinese insurance company Sinosure also showed interest in participating in the project ...
Latest news reports from the airline industry show that the European Commission has ended their investigation into the ownership structure of "Air Serbia", reaching a conclusion that Serbia indeed holds management rights over its national air carrier. Furthermore, having in mind their minority stake in Air Serbia, Etihad Airways has thus been enabled to operate according to EU standards in Serbia ...
With more than 6-months of delay, the Government of the Republic of Serbia finally adopted the following package of decrees setting out the new incentive scheme for green energy:Decree on the Power Purchase Agreement, ("PPA Decree");Decree on incentive measures for the production of electric energy from renewable energy sources and from high-efficiency cogeneration of electric energy and thermal energy (" View More
