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Panagiotis Drakopoulos Mariliza Kyparissi Recent amendments to Greek legislation on commercial leases provide for shortened minimum lease terms (three-year statutory minimum) and early termination clauses. This affects the Greek real estate market and raises business and investment expectations. New provisions invite a more market-friendly and business-oriented approach, restricting the previous protective framework for the lessee, and granting an enhanced set of powers to the lessor, in the hope of reversing the idle investment climate in the Greek market. The recently introduced lease term and termination clauses favour market mobility, allowing for more flexible arrangements among parties and preventing properties from staying locked down over long periods of time. Before their final investment move, investors are now able to explore opportunities with high growth potential and may freely negotiate and agree on prices, terms and conditions of the lease agreement, achieving predictability in their business planning. It is expected that the successful implementation of the new law on commercial leases will lead to the creation of new investment schemes. It aims to attract the interest of real estate investment companies (REICs) and other institutional and individual investors seeking to expand their investment scope and main activities. Single investors or investment groups should therefore opt to expand their activity in a growing real estate market, invest in commercial and tourist property, promising real estate development projects, and vacant units and unused commercial premises, taking advantage of the flexible provisions and boosting real estate portfolios' valuations. Therefore, commercial real estate property of previously limited demand, such as secondary retail, warehouses and non-prime office buildings, should be successfully targeted by domestic and foreign investors through the emergence of investment schemes, securing the recovery of the property market and boosting its flexibility and mobility.

The sponsor-led leveraged buyout (LBO) of Giant Interactive highlights banks' increasing comfort with Chinese borrowers' underlying credit.

Investors in European high yield are once again unhappy at the erosion of safeguards in the region's booming debt markets.

Investors that own a quantity of stock below its index weight may a pose greater and more immediate threat to companies than growing activism or short sellers, one of the OECD’s independent advisers has warned

What will stop swap counterparties hitting this? Inserting new clauses into derivatives contracts could be the final piece of the solution to the too-big-to-fail conundrum that has vexed regulators since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008. The industry group for the $700 trillion global swaps market, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA), is revising international protocols to impose a temporary pause that would prevent counterparties from terminating swap trades with a failing bank for up to 48 hours.

Proposed changes that empower minority shareholders could have unintended side effects. Ogonna Chinedu-Eze, Ozofu Ogiemudia and Folake Elias-Adebowale of Udo Udoma & Belo-Osagie explain why

TPG’s acquisition of up to 75% of Union Bank of Colombo is Sri Lanka’s biggest private equity deal. It also signals increasing interest in the south Asian country

The restructure of Suzlon Energy’s foreign currency convertible bonds is the largest in India to date. It also demonstrates that offshore bondholders and onshore lenders can reach a solution together

Investors must push back against Asia's weakening high-yield covenant packages. Although investor protections remain robust – especially compared to what's seen in the US and Europe – the region's legal frameworks are much less established.

The European Central Bank (ECB) has quite the job on its hands. Tasked with supervising the eurozone's largest 128 banks in November, the central bank needs to prove itself.