In June 2004 legislation came into force giving Scottish communities a right to purchase land for sustainable development. The legislation is complicated. Even the Scottish Executive's guidance for community bodies states such a purchase is no easy option and requires commitment and patience. It suggests community bodies may wish to consider buying the land by agreement without the use of the legislation ...
The Federal Electricity Commission (the “Commission”) has put out for public bidding the construction and the operation of a Liquid Natural Gas Degasification Terminal (the “Terminal”). The winning tender will construct, operate, and supply gas from the Terminal which will ensure a supply of natural gas to the Commission’s electricity generating plants Manzanillo I and II, Bajio, El Sauz, Salamanca, and Guadalajara I and II ...
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 ...
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 ...
In the 1930s Duke Ellington wrote what was to become a jazz standard. The song was called "It don't mean a thing (if it ain't got that swing)". What is the connection with gas supply you may well ask? To explain, contracts to supply gas contain ‘swing’ - the term for the supply margin given to a buyer over their peak demand ...
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 ...
In this issue: - SDLT – The New Disclosure Rules Implications for Housebuilders - Restrictive Covenants and Implied Terms in Contracts - Can You be Prosecuted for Lust? - Stamp Duty Strife
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 ...
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 ...
In the past days, two very important events at the Regional and National Level, honored the ADR mechanisms, specifically the mediation and arbitration proceedings. We refer to the First Central American Congress on Mediation and Arbitration organized by the Nicaraguan Chamber of Commerce and the Third National Congress on Mediation organized by the Office of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Division (DIRAC) of the Supreme Court of Justice ...
The National Venture Capital Association (US) has prepared various model venture capital documents for use in the industry, including a term sheet (the “NVCA Term Sheet”). These model legal documents are available at www.nvca.org. The American Bar Association has further commented on the provisions in the NVCA Term Sheet, in particular adding commentary including outlining any differences between the California corporations law and Delaware law ...
Background The return to democracy in October of 1982 arrived with a “social debt” derived from the days of the Siles Zuazo government, which, by giving way to the workers’ demands, caused Bolivia to enter into a hyperinflationary downward spiral. The Government of Siles Zuazo ended one year before the end of its term (as Mesa did), allowing Dr. Víctor Paz Estensoro to come to power through the general elections of 1985 ...
GETTING PAID ON A COLLECTION FILE – FROM START TO FINISH I. INTRODUCTION This paper is intended to be an overview of various issues and potential pitfalls that inevitably will arise in the course of attempting to collect on a debt claim from the time the debt becomes due all the way through to the enforcement of a court judgment based on the debt claim ...
Irish Shell Limited v JH McLoughlin (Balbriggan) Limited, unreported High Court, 4 August 2005, Mr Justice Clarke This case is a good illustration of the application of the legal principles involved in granting an injunction while a related trial is pending (known as an interlocutory injunction). Facts: The plaintiff (Shell) sold a filling station in Balbriggan, County Dublin, to the defendant company in 2004 ...
In our last newsletter we provided a summary of the Securities & Futures Commission’s (“SFC”) proposed amendments to the SFC’s guidelines on hedge funds. The SFC has now concluded its consultations and the hedge fund guidelines have been amended. As proposed, in assessing compliance of the personnel of investment managers with the requirement for five years relevant experience, a wider range of hedge fund experience will now be acceptable ...
In January 2005, the Hong Kong Securities & Futures Commission (“SFC”) issued a Consultation Paper on the disclosure of interests in securities of Hong Kong listed companies under Part XV of the Securities & Futures Ordinance (“SFO”). Conclusions to the consultation were issued in May 2005. The most significant of these include the following: Investment managers: non-aggregation Interests (and short positions) of companies are attributed to their holding companies and other “controllers” ...
Authorisation of funds by the Macau Monetary Authority (“MMA”) is necessary for funds to be distributed to the public in Macau. Authorisation will only be granted if the investment funds have been duly authorised in their country of origin and the respective funds managers and custodians are subject to supervision by a competent home regulator. In practice funds are usually authorised in Macau on the basis that they are already authorised by the SFC in Hong Kong ...
The SFC published its conclusions on the Consultation Paper on Proposed Amendments to the Schedule 5 to the Securities and Futures Ordinance in September. The Consultation Paper had proposed amendments to the definitions of certain regulated activities as set out in the SFO. The main proposals were: • To extend the definition of "asset management" to include management of real estate investment trusts ...
Offshore Investment of Foreign Currency Assets of Chinese Insurance Companies Following the Provisional Regulatory Measures on Offshore Investment of Foreign Currency Insurance Assets (“Provisional Measures”) issued by the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (“CIRC”) in August 2004 which allow qualifying PRC insurance companies to invest their foreign currency assets (which include proceeds raised through overseas listing) offshore subject to certain limits (please refer to our Client Update
The Taiwan Financial Supervisory Commission (“FSC”) on 2 August 2005 promulgated new rules governing the offering of overseas funds in Taiwan (the “New Rules”). Please refer to our Client Update by email which was issued in September 2005 and posted on our website: www.deacons.com.hk for our Executive Summary on the New Rules. Deacons has held a client seminar on the subject in September and we had the honour of Mr. Gordon Hsin, senior director of SITCA presiding ...
