Search results for

With an ambitious privatization programme and a thriving economy, Finland’s lawyers welcome outside interest in their country’s quiet success. Nick Ferguson reports from Helsinki

US law firm Squire, Sanders & Dempsey has announced plans to open offices in Taipei and Hong Kong. These will be the firm's first Asia-Pacific offices. The firm's head office is in Cleveland but it has a further 7 offices in the US and 8 offices in Europe and the former Soviet bloc. Thomas Stanton, managing partner of the Cleveland office, says: "Following our success in emerging markets in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, we decided to focus on China. Our offices will offer expertise in infrastructure, privatization, telecoms, finance and joint venture activity."

• US firm Brown & Wood has appointed Michael Durrer as a partner in its London office. Durrer returns to the firm after three years with Atlanta-based Kilpatrick Stockton. He joins the securitization practice group. • Mark Wierzbowski, a partner of the Warsaw office of Weil Gotshal & Manges, has been made President of the Supervisory Board of the Warsaw Stock Exchange.

On January 31 1998, the Promotion of Investments Law became effective with the aim of promoting domestic and inward investment. The equality of inward investment with domestic investments is now guaranteed by the government which takes responsibility for damages and ensures the free transfer of capital and profits (free convertibility is permitted by law).

In the wake of Asia's financial crisis, continuing speculation on a Renminbi devaluation appears to have triggered an outflow of foreign currency from China.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has announced that share buybacks will be made legal by the fourth quarter of 1998, following feedback from industry bodies and financial market participants. Companies will be permitted to repurchase shares on the market in round lots out of distributable profits at any time within the period mandated by shareholders. The proposed legislation, which will complement the provisions permitting capital reduction in the Singapore Companies Act, will provide appropriate safeguards to ensure that creditors' interests are preserved and to minimize abuse, while providing sufficient flexibility to companies.

The ministry of finance is preparing a government Bill containing proposed amendments to the Act on Investment Funds. The aim is for the Bill to be ratified and become effective by the end of this year.

In August 1998, the Austrian Legislature adopted for the first time a Takeover Code. Changes have been made to the draft prepared by the ministry of justice (see International Financial Law Review, June 1997, page 60).

The recent merger of the German Futures Exchange DTB (Deutsche Terminbörse) and the Swiss Futures Exchange SOFFEX (Swiss Options and Financial Futures Exchange) created EUREX (European Exchange) as a single platform for pan-European trading and clearing of standardized futures and options under harmonized rules. EUREX is a fully electronic exchange based in Frankfurt and Zurich, with access points in Amsterdam, Chicago, London and Paris (and future access points in Helsinki, Madrid and New York).

A new Russian bankruptcy law became effective on March 1 1998 (Federal Law No. 6-FZ On Bankruptcy). Given the difficulties being experienced by the Russian economy and the precarious state of many enterprises, the new law may assume growing importance in the reform process. Under previous legislation, bankruptcies proved difficult to implement and only infrequently resulted in the liquidation or material restructuring of troubled debtors. Key improvements in the new law include a revised and more practical definition of bankruptcy; a wider list of actors who may start bankruptcy proceedings; and new and more detailed procedures governing the activities of the courts, creditors and manager/trustees in connection with bankruptcy.