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Clean Energy Finance Corporation’s loan to an Australian wave energy company introduced a new financing structure for projects that are not yet commercialised

Roman Churakov of Herbert Smith Freehills explains how the country’s public-private partnerships are developing

A lack of projects to absorb the growing volume of private debt funds now being raised could be Europe's next challenge

Teruyoshi Takahashi On April 1 2014, Tokyo Stock Exchange enforced an Amendment to the Securities Listing Regulations. Events that will trigger timely disclosure for listed real estate investment trust (REIT) securities (disclosure events) are substantially expanded. This Amendment was brought about in connection with the Amendment to the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act as of April 1 2014, which made insider trading rules applicable to the trading of listed investment units issued by J-REITs which invest in real estate properties. Under the new Securities Listing Regulations, the following items (in summary and not limited to the following) are newly provided as disclosure events (for some items, exemptions are provided in the Enforcement Rules for Securities Listing Regulations):

The Korean law on class action lawsuits which went into effect on January 1 2005 is the Securities Class Action Lawsuits Act. As of now, this statute applies only to securities-related claims for damages based on false securities reports and information circulars, false business reports, semi-annual or quarterly reports, use of non-public information, stock price manipulation or negligent auditing by an external auditor. Due to various strict requirements in addition to such limited grounds for the commencement of a class action lawsuit in Korea, this statute has rarely been used. Thus far, only six class action lawsuits have been filed, and even among such lawsuits, not one has progressed to a final decision from the court of first instance. Due to criticisms of this status quo, the National Assembly and citizens' groups have been discussing a complete overhaul of the Securities Class Action Lawsuits Act.

Vijaya Sampath As of April 1 2014, 283 sections of the Companies Act 2013 (of the total 470 sections) and the related rules dealing with these sections have been notified by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. Many new concepts have been introduced, the scope of others has been widened and many sections in the previous Act of 1956 have been dropped. Some of the new concepts range from new classes of one person and small companies to shareholder empowerment through class action suits. Certain profit-making companies have to spend 2% of their average net profits in the three preceding financial years on specified social schemes, or explain their reasons for not doing so.

Beatriz Causapé Guayente Gállego Spanish Royal Decree-Law 4/2014, passed on March 7 2014, has considerably changed the rules for the court-sanctioning of so-called Spanish schemes of arrangement. Among those changes, the reform has lowered the majorities required to achieve a Spanish scheme. Currently, a majority of at least 51% of the financial liabilities held by all creditors at the time of the refinancing agreement (acuerdo de refinanciación) approval, will suffice to request the insolvency judge to sanction the agreement, so it is considered ring-fenced and protected from any challenge for rescission.

Oene Marseille Emir Nurmansyah Indonesia has shortened its review process by 30 days for the issuance of the principal licence, considered to be the preliminary licence before the final issuance of the borrow-to-use permit (Izin Pinjam Pakai) for its forest areas. Indonesia's Minister of Forestry decreed this in its updated guidelines on the issuance of borrow-to-use permits for forest areas in Indonesia. Under the new guidelines (Regulations of the Ministry of Forestry), the principal licence review process is shortened from a maximum of 120 business days to 90 business days. The review process for the issuance of the borrow-to-use permit itself, for which the principle licence is a prerequisite, remains unchanged (a maximum review period of 90 days is prescribed). Further, the new guidelines have left untouched a bulk of the old procedures and mechanisms. For example, the provisions dealing with general application procedures, requisite supporting documents, applicant's obligations and the required compensatory actions remain the same. The borrow-to-use permit is issued by the Minister of Forestry of Indonesia. This permit is one of the most important, yet onerous licences to obtain before conducting any natural resource exploration and exploitation activities in a forest area in Indonesia. Industries traditionally affected by this permit requirement include oil and gas, geothermal, coal and other minerals, power generation, lumber, and plantations.

Pedro Cortés Marta Mourão Teixeira Legislation on anti-money laundering was passed in Macau in 2006, although there were some previous regulations already providing for it. Law 2/2006 on the prevention and repression of money laundering crimes of April 3 2006, established measures aimed at preventing and suppressing the criminal offence of money laundering. It defined the gains of money laundering as any assets derived from the commission, through any form of participation, of a typified act, which would be punishable with a penalty of imprisonment of a maximum term of three years.

Elias Neocleous The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) has issued a circular reminding providers of administrative and corporate services (ASPs) that it supervises their reporting obligations under the Law regulating Companies providing Administrative Services and Related Matters of 2012 (the ASP Law). It draws attention to article 11(1)(c) of the ASP Law, which provides that ASPs whose application for a licence is under consideration by CySEC must comply with the requirements of the ASP Law and CySEC Directive D?144-2007-08 of 2012 for the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (the AML Directive).