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A recent tax case out of the Fifth Circuit approved a taxpayer's strategy to make the best of a bad investment. According to the facts of Pilgrim's Pride v Commissioner, the taxpayer purchased preferred stock from two corporations (Issuers) for a total of $98.6 million in 1999. By 2004, the stock had declined significantly in value and the Issuers offered to buy back the stock for $20 million. The taxpayer determined that the best course of action was to abandon the stock for no consideration because a $98.6 million ordinary abandonment loss would generate tax savings more valuable than the $20 million offered by the Issuers. Accordingly, the taxpayer surrendered the stock to the Issuers, terminating its ownership rights with respect to the Issuers. The taxpayer then claimed an ordinary loss of $98.6 million. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) disagreed with the character of the loss, arguing that the abandonment should be treated as a sale or exchange, resulting in a capital loss (subject to limitation), rather than an ordinary loss.

Mark Brown and Alex Ping of Al Tamimi & Company look at recent developments in the UAE legal system affecting the financial sector and the establishment of the Abu Dhabi Global Market

Ignacio Buil Aldana José Luis Lucena During 2014, Spain's Insolvency Act suffered an accelerated shift. This was a response to the economy's need to adapt to unprecedented complex insolvency cases that the former wording of the law was unable to tackle. However, this sudden legal evolution has engendered a general feeling of uncertainty caused by the lack of case law and real life examples. In an attempt to remedy this situation, in late 2014 the commercial justices of Madrid drafted a unified document approving common criteria with which to approach the new Spanish Insolvency Act. In essence, light has been shed upon a number of issues that have been holding back investors from distressed investing opportunities in Spain.

WOLF THEISS made a significant addition to its Czech team this month, hiring Allen & Overy's longstanding Prague corporate head, Jan Myška, who joined the Austrian outfit as joint Prague managing partner. Myška focusses on transactional work and regulatory advice in the energy and insurance sectors.

Vicente D Gerochi Arvin Kristopher Razon The Philippine public-private partnership (PPP) programme, which the administration of President Aquino hopes will fast-track infrastructure development, has attracted a lot of interest from local and foreign investors. Nine projects have been awarded since 2010, including the NAIA Expressway, the LRT Line 1 Cavite Extension, the Mactan-Cebu International Airport Terminal, the Automated Fare Collection System, and the public school projects. Aside from these, 11 projects were rolled out in 2014, including the Laguna Lakeshore Expressway, which is the biggest project to date with a value of $2.73 billion. Local government units have also initiated their own PPP projects. With 50 more projects in the pipeline, the PPP programme could be the key to addressing the country's critical infrastructure backlog. However, concerns have been raised as to the sustainability of the programme. Will succeeding administrations continue to support it? Can best practices developed from, and the lessons of, past biddings be institutionalised?

It’s crunch time for the revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive. Esma must heed the industry’s concerns over liquidity, costs and access to prevent disaster in 2017

Pedro Cortés Marta Mourão This seems to be the year to focus on the economy of Macau. In light of the latest Policy Address delivered by the Chief Executive on March 23 2015, it is clear that the Macau Government needs to focus on stable and healthy economic adjustment, risk prevention and the promotion of economic restructuring. The goals in this sector include: maintaining the stability and health of the financial and monetary situation and the low unemployment rate; improving the business environment; actively promoting the stabilisation of products

Market players must tread carefully to capitalise on policymakers’ efforts to revive the regional economy

Bruno Amiel The increased activity of investment funds in the Peruvian market during the last years has led to a rapid reshaping of the Peruvian corporate and M&A market. This increased activity came about both through the creation of new local investment funds and the heighted presence of foreign investment funds. Such investment funds have become major players particularly in private equity transactions, real estate and financing operations, where transactions are no longer limited to the acquisition of controlling stakes in large scale companies. They also now include acquisitions of controlling or minority participations in profitable small and medium companies operating in different sectors by investors pooling their funds through such investment funds. The increased activity was boosted by the Peruvian government enacting regulations to further local and foreign investment, executing investment treaties, simplifying administrative procedures for obtaining concessions, permits, and authorisations. This allowed the investment funds to further increase their investments in small and medium size companies operating in the different sectors. The consequent growth of such companies now requires a review of previously non-existent corporate governance regulations to protect new investors and maximise returns.

Banks have much to gain from the new breed of lenders gaining prominence across Europe. But as McGuireWoods' Marc Isaacs and Alan Holliday explain, they must learn to work with their new competition