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Oscar Arrús Over the past 10 years, infrastructure and public service projects in Peru have increased both in number and in size. These projects are mostly carried out through concessions: government contracts signed with private companies through which they are granted the right to operate such projects and receive the cash flows they generate. The start-up capital required to perform these contracts is usually provided by private investors, either through offerings in the securities market or syndicated loans provided by multilateral entities or private banks, and secured by the cash flow generated by such projects.

Daniel Futej Rudolf Sivak This article provides a brief overview of important legislative changes in Slovak tax legislation which have recently come into effect. Based on the amendment to the Income Tax Act, as of January 1 2013, Slovakia no longer has a flat rate tax for companies (legal persons) and individuals. The tax rate for companies increased from 19% to 23%. As regards individuals (natural persons), two tax rates exist, and these will be applied in the following way:

Claudia Bonelli Pedro G Seraphim In every analysis of Brazil's potential for growth and international competitiveness, a very common word is bottleneck. Indeed, Brazil has several of these, especially when the subject is transportation infrastructure. Crowded airports, poorly maintained federal roads, a scarce railroad system, insufficient public transportation in the big cities, and absolutely deficient ports. Indeed, these factors have affected the country's agricultural, industrial and exportation competitiveness, and have certainly played an important role in Brazil's weak GDP performance in recent years. There is a relative overall improvement in the country's macroeconomic condition, aided by maintaining the ninth largest internal market in the world. Brazil has been raised to 48th place on the World Economic Forum's Global Competiveness Index 2012-2013, but it drops to 79th position when it comes to the quality of transport infrastructure.

Carlos Fradique Méndez Adriana Ospina-Jiménez Leading global financial institutions, asset managers and multi-product investment advisers are among the foreign entities that are increasingly showing their interest in promoting their cross-border, financial and securities-related services to Colombian investors. These foreign entities are especially targeting Colombian pension funds, the most important institutional investors in the Colombian financial sector, as they have approximately $65 billion AUM and growing at a 25% rate per year. The growing interest of these foreign entities is mainly due to (i) Colombia's sound economic growth (preliminary figures indicate that real GDP grew by approximately 4.8% during the first quarter, 4.9% during the second quarter and 2.1% during the third quarter of 2012); (ii) Colombia's high level of foreign direct investment; (iii) its reliable legal framework (as indicated in the World Banks's Doing Business 2013: "Colombia is a regional leader in narrowing the gap with the world's most efficient regulatory practice"); and, (iv) the upgrade to investment-grade status in 2011 by Moody's Investor Service and Fitch Ratings.

Stamatiou Costas On February 21 2013, the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) issued a circular addressed to Cyprus investment firms (CIFs) to draw their attention to the obligations attached to their freedom to provide services in other EU member states (host member states). The provision of services under the freedom to provide services means that a CIF provides services freely in the host member state without having a physical presence there, for example through its website. Different arrangements apply if the CIF has employees or representatives physically present in the host member state acting on its behalf. These are contained in article 76 of the Investment Services Law, which regulates the establishment of a branch or the appointment of a tied agent attached to a branch established in the host member state. A CIF providing investment services in a host member state under the freedom to provide services must notify CySEC of its intention to do so in accordance with article 79 of the Investment Services and Activities and Regulated Markets Law of 2007, as amended (the Investment Services Law). Article 79 stipulates that a CIF may not start to provide services or perform activities in the host member state until it receives notification from CySEC that the competent authority of the host member state has been informed of its intention to provide services there.

On January 21 2013, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) finally issued the (Investment Advisors) Regulations 2013 (Regulation). The Regulations seek to regulate the activity of 'investment advice'.

Takasumi Munakata On March 7 2013, the Financial Services Agency of Japan (FSA) published its proposal for the comprehensive revision of short selling regulations. Those proposed revisions will be subject to public comment until April 8, at which point the FSA will consider any comments received and amend the relevant regulations and ordinances. The FSA has advised that it expects the proposed new regulations to come into force around November 2013. Short selling is the sale of security by a party that does not hold the security at the time of sale. The short selling of securities benefits the market, as it allows for investors who do not hold the subject securities and expect that the price of the subject securities will decrease to express this opinion to the market, which can then be reflected in the price of such share. In addition, short selling also contributes to market liquidity. Where the market price of a security is declining, however, short selling of the security may exacerbate such decline, and may encourage unfair trading practices, such as so-called bear raids. In order to mitigate this risk, as well as other risks associated with it, short selling is carefully regulated in Japan.

Distributors of foreign QIFs must soon adapt to the revised Swiss rules. Here’s what they need to do

Forum shopping in sovereign insolvency proceedings, including NML v Argentina, reveals the need for an international insolvency regime

Iñigo Rubio Lasarte It seems that Spain may see a solution in the coming weeks to the nine Spanish highways that filed for insolvency within recent months. The Government is working on a plan to finally rescue the insolvent concessions, with the acceptance of the financial lenders. According to various government sources, the proposal consists of nationalising the insolvent concessions (AP-41, R-2, R-4, R-3 and R5, AP-36, Aucosta, Ciralsa, M-12 and Ausur) by contributing the equity of the concessions to a public company. After the Government takes control, it will agree on a restructuring of the debt with the financial lenders, including substantial write-offs. The plan will need the support of both the equity sponsors and the financial lenders, and it is here that a substantial discrepancy may appear between the Spanish and foreign lenders.