Search results for

Privatization and deregulation are creating a more modern business environment in Austria and law firms are under increasing pressure to provide a similarly modern service. Nick Ferguson writes

Formerly restrictive of international offerings of securities, the British Columbia Securities Commission has introduced measures more favourable to foreign purchasers. By David Glennie, Peter O’Callaghan and Geoffrey Belsher of Blake, Cassels & Graydon, London and Vancouver

On March 1 1998, the amendments to the 1989 EU Merger Regulation entered into force. For the details of the new regime see International Financial Law Review, June 1997, page 53.

The Czech government is beginning the slow process of rebuilding investor confidence. Further banking and funds reforms are planned. By Madle Waldvogel of Beiten Burkhardt Mittl & Wegener, Prague

Spain recently approved rules to reduce the risks derived from the insolvency of any of the parties involved in financial operations in relation to derivative instruments. In the event of the accelerated maturity of the balances resulting from these operations, the netting of the balances is now allowed.

Arbitration has become an increasingly important method of dispute resolution. Before the resumption of sovereignty by China on July 1 1997, Hong Kong and China were separate parties to the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards 1958. Chinese artibral awards were convention awards, enforceable in Hong Kong under section 42(1) of the Arbitration Ordinance. However, since July 1 1997, when Hong Kong and China ceased to be separate parties to the New York Convention, section 42(1) has no longer applied to Chinese awards. Questions then arose as to how Chinese arbitral awards can be enforced in Hong Kong.

On September 11 1997, the Supreme Court of Justice (Oberster Gerichtshof) ruled on basic issues of liability extending to statements or omissions made in issuing prospectuses under general rules of Austrian contract and tort law (6 Ob 2100/96h). Because the transaction in question had taken place in 1978, the Capital Markets Act of 1991 (Kapitalmarktgesetz) and the Stock Exchange Act of 1989 (Börsegesetz), which provide for specific rules regarding liability for material misrepresentations or omissions in prospectuses, were not applicable. The 1989 and 1991 acts do not provide a complete set of liability rules and are supplemented by the liability rules of the Austrian Civil Code. The decision will also have a significant impact on future prospectus liability cases falling outside the scope of the acts, ie where prospectuses are not issued in the course of a public offer.

By a judgment dated April 6 1998, the Danish prime minister was acquitted of charges of unconstitutional conduct in connection with the signing of the EU Treaty. The plaintiff, a group of Danish citizens, alleged that a provision in the constitution stating that surrender of sovereignty may only take place in certain defined cases had been violated.

The New Zealand government recently announced a package of 'in principle' reforms to the electricity industry, which have as their primary objective obtaining 'a better deal for electricity consumers'.

Diageo, the world's largest drinks business, is selling drinks brands Bombay gin and Dewar's scotch whisky to Bacardi, at a price thought to be over £1.1 billion (US $1.8 billion). The sale was required by US regulators in order to allow the proposed merger of Guinness and Grand Metropolitan to go ahead. Goldman Sachs entered into a US$2.6 billion multicurrency agreement with Bacardi, consisting of three series of term loans to finance the acquisitions and one series of term loans to refinance the company's existing debt. Frank Aquila and Neil Anderson, M&A partners at Sullivan & Cromwell's New York office, are advising Diageo.