Search results for

Mutual recognition, stronger capital markets, and extraterritoriality are at the heart of the region’s growth prospects

One of Europe's senior political figures has said that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will not provide the region with the major funding required to return it to growth.

On October 3, ICBC became the first Asian bank to issue USD-denominated Basel III-compliant Tier 2 notes, establishing a pricing benchmark for future issuances from Asian banks

Isil Ökten Tolga Çabakli Debt assumption mechanisms constitute one of the major issues for lenders in public-private partnership (PPP) projects, and have been recently revisited by the Turkish Parliament to ensure certainty, clarity and sustainability in this respect. In March 2013, Act 4749 on Public Finance and Debt Management (the Public Finance Act) has been amended by Law 6428. The new article (8/A) of the Public Finance Act enables a treasury debt assumption mechanism for certain PPP projects on the following conditions:

The key compliance considerations for private investment funds caught by the looming US statute

Oene Marseille Emir Nurmansyah The Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources has recently issued the second amendment to Rule 7 of 2012 regarding Increasing Mineral Resources Value Through Processing and Refining (Rule 7), in the form of Rule 20 of 2013 (the second amendment). The second amendment effectively put a date on the ban, which is now set at January 12 2014. Previously, the export ban, which was set at May 2013, was lifted through the first amendment to Rule 7, with the condition of obtaining several requirements including the recommendation of the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources. The second amendment added another requirement to the list: the recommendation for the Ministry of Trade, or an appointed government official in accordance with the prevailing regulations.

For some time now, the US has been under pressure to regulate and enforce laws on offshore accounts. The biggest gun in the government's arsenal against undeclared offshore accounts came in the form of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (Fatca), originally passed in 2010, that will take effect in July 2014. This new provision would require foreign financial institutions to report information about their US account holders to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Ignacio Buil Aldana Act 14/2013, of September 27 2013, favouring entrepreneurs and their internationalisation (the Act), has introduced a wide range of reforms on several insolvency, corporate, tax and labour matters. Regarding insolvencies, the Act (among other changes) significantly reduces the quorum of financial creditors required for court-sanctioned refinancing agreements. It also includes a new out-of-court device in order for debtors and creditors to reach payment agreements binding dissident creditors. With respect to the court-sanctioned refinancing (the so called Spanish scheme), the Act lowers the 75% (of financial debt) support threshold required under additional provision 4 of the Insolvency Act to court-sanction a refinancing agreement to a mere 55%. Further, the Act clarifies that that quorum be superimposed on the quorum required for refinancing agreements under article 71.6 of the Insolvency Act (60% of total debt, including financial debt), in line with both doctrine and case law. This reform is aimed at facilitating Spanish schemes by simplifying and lowering the threshold to reach the relevant majorities. This, of course, may have an effect on existing and future Spanish restructurings even if other key issues such as the ability to cram-down secured creditors is still uncertain, despite relevant developments in this regard (such as the Celsa case).

How to use Europe’s first model block transaction agreements, and how they will benefit the market

It is hard not to wonder if Standard & Poor's (S&P) has been gloating through the latest US debt ceiling fiasco.