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The foreign owners of foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs, excluding wholly foreign-owned companies for the purpose of this article) are eager to reap the advantages of the increasingly prosperous capital markets in China to raise funds in renminbi and enhance their exposure to the Chinese market. Quite a number of these foreign investors struggle with the idea that the capital market in China dislikes so-called foreign gold miners, and thus FIEs are hindered from listing on the A-share market. This opinion may be quite wrong.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), the Indian capital markets regulator, has recently amended the Sebi (Issue of Capital and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2009. The stated purpose of some of these amendments is to introduce so-called reformatory measures to revive the primary capital markets in India. These measures, according to the minutes of the Sebi's board meeting, are to encourage enhanced retail investors' participation, impose a higher standard of accountability on companies and intermediaries, and ensure greater transparency in the initial public offering (IPO) process.

Infrastructure is one of the main areas related to the project finance market which the Costa Rican government is developing. Recent projects include the San José-Caldera road concession, the investment management contract for airport services at Juan Santamaria International Airport, the concession for the new passenger terminal building at Liberia International Airport, and the concession for the construction of a grain wharf at the Port of Caldera, with total investments in excess of $450 million.

Structured products, securitisations and commodity pools must navigate a patchwork of Dodd-Frank regulations. But recent interpretive guidance means all is not lost

The IFLR1000’s 2013 law firm rankings reveal a cautious market that’s strategising for better days

India’s securities regulator is looking for inspiration abroad. Here’s how the US and Hong Kong are changing local enforcement and disclosure rules

Patrick Wieland Forests sequester and store vast amounts of carbon dioxide and play a fundamental role in global climate regulation. Yet deforestation and forest degradation of tropical areas is accelerating dramatically. Forest loss is responsible for between 3.6 and 4.5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year, representing 17-20% of global greenhouse gas emissions (IPCC, 2007). The carbon sequestration and storage functions of the world's forests are a type of ecosystem service. Ecosystem services are generally taken for granted: we benefit from the clean air and carbon offsetting services that forests provide, but do not equally share the costs for their preservation. To correct this situation, mechanisms to value ecosystem services through economic incentives have arisen as an international strategy. Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) is one such incentive scheme.

Nicholas Chang Gerald Cheong The Singapore Exchange (SGX) has proposed some significant initiatives to the offer structure relating to initial public offerings (IPOs). In Singapore, the offer structure for an IPO normally comprises a placement tranche and a public subscription tranche. For Mainboard IPOs, the SGX listing rules specify that the shareholding spread and distribution requirement for companies with market capitalisation below S$300 million ($244.9 million) must have a public float of at least 25% to be held by at least 500 shareholders. This number of shareholders includes shareholders from both the public subscription tranche and the placement tranche. This rule provides assurance of fair and orderly trading of shares when listed. There is, however, no requirement for Mainboard listing applications to allocate a minimum proportion of shares to the public subscription tranche as a method of offering.

Yutaro Fujimoto On March 11 2011, just a few hours before the now infamous Great East Japan Earthquake, the Japanese Cabinet adopted the Act on Special Measures Concerning the Procurement of Renewable Energy by Operators of Electric Utilities, setting out the legal framework for the establishment of a feed-in tariff (FIT) programme in Japan. The Japanese FIT programme places an obligation on electric utility companies to purchase the electricity generated from renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind, hydro and biomass, at a set price and term, which will be established annually by the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry on an annual basis. The programme contemplates that the additional costs incurred by electric utility companies to purchase such electricity will be passed along to the end-consumer, but subject to certain adjustments at the decision of the Minister and the Agency for Redistribution. The objective of the Act was originally to strengthen the energy independence of Japan by encouraging the use of solar, wind, or other domestic renewable resources while addressing environmental concerns such as global warming. Following the Great East Japan Earthquake and, in particular, the public outcry against nuclear power following the disaster at the Fukushima Nuclear Plant, the Act garnered significant public attention as a means to develop alternative sources of energy for Japan. As a result, the Japanese Diet accelerated its approval of the Act. It came into force on July 1 2012.

The Panamanian bank has used a contractual structure to issue Latin America’s first cross-border covered bond