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Banks may be forced to rethink their internal models for valuing complex assets as regulators seek greater comparability across products and financial institutions.

The regulator's head of M&A, Willard Mwemba, discusses how the body’s merger review process has evolved since its launch in January 2013

Opportunistic investors are beating a path to the region. But differences in company structures and judicial opposition will ensure the journey won’t be easy

Sanjay Mohanasundram As in most other jurisdictions which seek to preserve the sanctity of the arbitration process, Malaysia's Arbitration Act 2005 limits the grounds on which a party can seek to reverse an arbitration award. Section 42 of the Act allows for a party to challenge an award on a question of law. Until the recent decision of the Court of Appeal in Government of Malaysia v Perwira Bintang Holdings Sdn Bhd there was some confusion as to when the court should exercise its discretion to set aside an award on a question of law. In this decision, the Court of Appeal set out the following criteria in order to determine whether an award should be set aside on this ground:

The tips and tricks that will help the region’s dealmakers exceed last year’s record volumes

Anthony Dee Patricia Paz Republic Act No 9184, or the Government Procurement Reform Act (GPRA), took effect on January 26 2003. The GPRA covers all stages of procurement of infrastructure projects, goods, and consulting services by all branches and instrumentalities of government. The GPRA establishes a two-tier protest mechanism to challenge a public procurement tender before an award. In order to exhaust this internal protest procedure, a bidder must first file a request for reconsideration with the procuring entity's Bids and Awards Committee (BAC). The BAC's denial of the request may be protested in writing to the head of the procuring entity upon payment of a non-refundable fee. The decision of the head of the procuring entity is final, such that the bidder may only avail itself of judicial review upon completion of protests and only on the ground of grave abuse of discretion. Arguably, this legal framework does not provide an expedient system for independent complaints review. Meeting the timeframes provided under the law for protest resolution is a challenge for many procuring entities, and the absence of independent and expert review undermines, to a certain degree, the legitimacy and credibility of any protest resolution.

Aksel Joachim Hageler Thomas Sando On March 4 2015, the Norwegian Competition Authority approved Coop's acquisition of rival grocery chain Ica. The decision ended a saga which has occupied the Competition Authority and the relevant market players for years. The decision also marked the second time in less than eight years that a foreign grocery chain has exited the Norwegian market. German Lidl previously aborted its attempt at penetrating the Norwegian market in 2007. While Coop has emerged as the winner among the grocery chains in the struggle for Ica, the decision leaves some of the spoils for both chains Norgesgruppen and Bunnpris. In the merger decision, the Competition Authority compelled Coop to divest 93 of Ica's stores to these two competitors, apparently leaving no room for either foreign buyers or other Norwegian players.

Damien Roberts Marcell Németh Ana García Vinicio Trombetti

Juan Luis Avendaño Nydia Guevara Banks' subordinated debt and its impact on regulatory capital are still regulated in Peru under the Basel II standards. Since their inception in 2009, Peruvian banks have issued tier 1 and tier 2 hybrid instruments in the form of subordinated bonds. The basic features of Peruvian banks' subordinated debt instruments for purposes of qualifying as regulatory capital are that they: i) are unsecured; ii) rank junior to all other obligations and senior only to equity; iii) have loss-absorption capabilities; and iv) have a minimum term to maturity of five years.

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