In our Client Alert dated 26 March 2021, we reported that the Government had released a draft Technical Circular on the implementation of the spirit of Security of Payment Legislation (SOPL) in public works contracts. The draft Circular was provided to stakeholders to comment and the Circular aimed at implementing certain measures of SOPL on public works contracts, term contracts and related subcontracts tendered after July/August 2021 ...
Many billions of assets under management have already been tokenised. High profile managers such as Franklin Templeton, Abrdn, KKR, Mitsui and Hamilton Lane have already launched tokenised products. Whilst there is no doubt that this is a nascent space, and these assets still represent a tiny percentage of the funds industry, we expect this area to grow exponentially in the coming years. What is tokenisation? Tokenisation is the digital representation of "traditional" financial assets (e.g ...
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals recently affirmed a district court ruling regarding class certification in a securities class action, Ludlow, et al. v. BP, PLC, et al., stemming from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. The opinion provides several important takeaways for securities class action litigation. To read the full alert, click here ...
The standards for Section 11 liability for statements of opinion in registration statements is the subject of a split between the federal circuit courts. The Tenth Circuit joined the split in the recently issued opinion, MHC Mutual Conversion Fund v. Sandler O’Neill & Partners, et al. The Supreme Court is scheduled to resolve this split next term in the Omnicare1 case, which is currently being briefed before the high court ...
[!<CDATA[ Recent changes in the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proxy rules will give shareholders the ability to vote for directors like never before. The new rules will require companies to provide universal proxy cards to shareholders voting by proxy in contested director elections. Universal proxy cards will require the company and the dissident to each list all nominated directors on their proxy cards ...
The Emirates’ first stock exchange, the Dubai Financial Market, has been trading since mid 2000. A stock exchange was subsequently established in Abu Dhabi. Although the two markets are not presently linked, they are both subject to regulation under the UAE Securities & Commodities Exchange Law (the “Law”), which is a Federal legislation ...
Here’s a fun conversation starter for lenders, borrowers and attorneys who regularly work on HUD-insured multifamily and health care facility loans: If HUD had a list of Ten Commandments for obtaining a HUD-insured loan, what would be Commandment No. 1? Most professionals in the HUD-insured loan universe would likely put the “first lien” requirement at or near the top of the list of Ten Commandments ...
The purpose of section 197 of South Africa’s Labour Relations Act, 1995 (“LRA”) is to protect and maintain employment in circumstances where a transfer of business takes place. In terms of section 197 and section 197B(1)(b), a “transfer” means the transfer of a business by one employer (the old employer) to another employer (the new employer) as a going concern ...
After a prolonged internal debate, the Securities and Exchange Commission has unanimously proposed new rules for the regulation of money market mutual funds, also known as money market funds or money funds. If adopted, these rules would fundamentally change the basic characteristics of most money funds ...
The Second Circuit recently broadened the circumstances for when a public company should disclose government investigations. Bradley partner Elisha Kobre explains that companies will need to consider when reasonable investors would “want to know” about a probe, which is a higher standard than in earlier cases ...
In a landmark opinion released on December 10, 2014, the Second Circuit clarified the scope of tippee liability for insider trading in that circuit by requiring a tippee to have knowledge that a tipper gained a personal benefit from the disclosure of material nonpublic information ...
The Second Circuit issued an important decision recently in In re Sanofi Securities Litigation applying the Supreme Court’s landmark Omnicare decision. In Omnicare, the Supreme Court held that a statement of opinion, even if honestly believed, could be actionable if the issuer failed to disclose material facts that conflict with what a reasonable investor would, in context, expect about the issuer’s basis for the opinion ...
On March 28, 2022, buried within a 200-page proposed rule ostensibly meant to redefine “dealer” and “government securities dealer” under Sections 3(a)(5) and 3(a)(44) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) published a seemingly innocuous footnote: "Proposed Rule 3a5-4 would apply to securities as defined by Section 3(a)(10) of the Exchange Act, and proposed Rule 3a44-2 would apply to government &
In two actions released last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) signaled its new focus on credit rating agencies and foretold the seriousness with which it will approach the expanded regulatory authority granted to the SEC by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (“Dodd-Frank Act”). On August 31, 2010, the SEC released a Section 21(a) report on its investigation of Moody’s Investors Service, Inc ...
On March 1, 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) adopted final rules that will require registrants to include a hyperlink to each exhibit identified in nearly all of the registration statements and reports subject to Item 601 of Regulation S-K or under Form F-10 or Form 20-F (the “Final Rule”) ...
In February of this year, the Securities Exchange Commission issued its updated Statement and Guidance on Public Company Cybersecurity Disclosures. In April, the SEC issued an Order that, among other things, levied a $35 million fine against Yahoo! Inc. for failing to properly report a 2014 data breach. These actions support the view that the SEC is consciously committing attention and resources to cybersecurity issues affecting public companies ...
On May 30, 2013, as had long been expected, the staff in the Division of Corporation Finance of the Securities and Exchange Commission released Frequently Asked Questions concerning the SEC’s conflict minerals rules.1 The FAQs do not address some of the thorniest interpretive issues under the conflict minerals rules, but they do reinforce a number of developing practices and provide helpful guidance on a number of topics for SEC reporting companies.2 We summarize some of the key FAQs below ...
On March 26, 2014, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) hosted a roundtable to discuss cybersecurity. The roundtable focused on how cybersecurity affects markets and how public companies and other businesses should address cybersecurity issues ...
In the next year, companies that work in the development of oil, natural gas or minerals will have to publicly make new disclosures of payments of $100,000 or more made to governments. The $100,000 threshold is on a project-by-project basis, and will require companies to provide details of the type and amounts of payments made ...
Last week marked the fifth anniversary of the enactment of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“Dodd-Frank”), and a number of proposed rules have been released recently by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to implement corporate governance and disclosure requirements required by Dodd-Frank applicable to reporting companies under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (as amended, the “Exchange Act”) ...
Intending to provide clear reporting obligations for issuers, and to provide consistent, comparable, and decision-useful information for investors, on March 21, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed a landmark climate disclosure rule that would mandate SEC registrants to disclose greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and certain materials risks relating to climate change ...
In light of the increasing significance of cybersecurity incidents, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently found it necessary to provide further guidance with respect to cybersecurity disclosure requirements under the federal securities laws as they apply to public operating companies ...
As discussed on this blog, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued a number of orders providing conditional regulatory relief for certain publicly traded company filing obligations as a result of the challenges created by the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) ...
To Our Public Company Clients: The SEC has issued for comment a proposed rule which would require a company’s principal executive officer and principal financial officer to certify that, to their knowledge, the information contained in the company’s quarterly and annual reports is true in all important respects and that the reports contain all information about the company of which they are aware that they believe is important to a reasonable investor ...
