Local Insights

After ratification of the first sustainable investment facilitation agreement, between the EU and Angola, Carla Gonçalves Borges, Mariana França Gouveia, and Assunção Cristas of Vieira de Almeida analyse ESG considerations in African states’ investment treaties

ESG considerations are becoming an increasingly important factor in investment decisions in Ghana. Lady-Ann Essuman, Ewurama Osam Tawiah, and Verissa Odame-Koranteng of VINT & Aletheia, Attorneys and Consultants explain why, and how, the new reality should be embraced

As the financial services ecosystem in Nigeria continues its rapid development, DealHQ Partners provides a guide to the latest regulatory initiative regarding contactless payments

João Nuno Riquito and Nelson de Azevedo of Riquito Advogados examine how the legal, financial, and compliance frameworks for cross-border companies operating across Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macau are being reshaped

Bob Tseng and Sally Nguyen of TWL Law Group explain Vietnam’s evolving foreign direct investment regime, including business structures, conditional sectors, capital requirements, and recent 2025 investment law reforms for foreign investors

The key questions concerning foreign direct investment in India are addressed in this summary by Bob Tseng, Ditipriya Dutta Chowdhury, and Vaishnavi Shukla of TWL Law Group

Switzerland is well known as an innovation-friendly jurisdiction, in particular in the financial sector. This is partly due to the technology-neutral and principle-based approach of its regulation, which has allowed the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) and other Swiss authorities and self-regulatory organisations to flexibly address the challenges of emerging technology, such as distributed ledger technology (DLT), being used in financial services. Furthermore, Swiss regulation typically aims to create a level playing field between traditional players and innovators, seeking to ensure that the goals of financial regulation are met regardless of the technology used in a business model.

Distressed companies are those facing financial crises not resolvable without a considerable recasting of the firm's operations, structures and finance. This can be brought about through a company's failure to make a substantial payment of principal or interest to a creditor. Distress can also be seen in terms of financial ratios, for example in terms of liquidity and longer-term solvency. The basic and most prevalent forms of corporate distress assessment are the cash flow and the balance sheet tests, which apply both to going concern and break up (insolvency) valuation. In terms of break up valuation, under the cash flow test, a company is insolvent when it is unable to pay its debts as they fall due. Under the balance sheet test, the entity is insolvent if the book value of its assets, as listed on the conventional balance sheet, is less than its reported liabilities. The notions of asset exchangeability/liquidity and time prospect of sale are of great importance, particularly for the balance sheet test, as the latter includes the assessment of assets' value, by definition (UK Insolvency Act, 1986, 123 [2]). In this article, we first present the international/UK insight and, then, the Cyprus position on the matter.

A long-standing burden on the courts in the Slovak Republic is the large number of old enforcement proceedings. Old enforcement proceedings are referred proceedings that commenced before April 1 2017, when a large amendment of the Code of Enforcement Procedure entered into force. While the new rules from this date give bailiffs strict limits for the new enforcement proceedings – two-and-a-half years for debtors who are legal entities and five years for debtors who are natural persons – no such limits existed for the old enforcement proceedings. This fact, plus the fact that old enforcement procedures could not be terminated for insolvency of a debtor without the creditor's consent, explains why there are still 2.6 million old enforcement procedures in the courts. These old enforcement procedures formally continue even though the debtor is, in most cases, insolvent and no assets are being recovered from them. If these cases continue to be completed at their present rate without state intervention, the old enforcement procedures would remain in the legal system for another 12+ years. To end this unsustainable situation, the government proposed an act on the termination of the certain enforcement procedures (Act) aimed specifically at the old enforcement proceedings, which will enter force on January 1 2020.

Decreased availability and increased costs of funding have altered the behaviour of borrowers and lenders in the Peruvian leveraged finance market. Thomas Thorndike of Garrigues highlights the main themes and considers the outlook

Rita de la Guardia and Patricia Cordero, Alemán, Cordero, Galindo & Lee

Jaime Trujillo Caicedo, Alexandra Montealegre and María Camila Vargas, Baker McKenzie

Hossam Gramon, Karima Seyam, and Nour El Kholy of ADSERO – Ragy Soliman & Partners report that Egypt’s capital markets are undergoing structural reform and product diversification, reshaping the debt, ESG, and fintech sectors

Simone Del Nevo and Rahul Sud, ASAR – Al Ruwayeh & Partners

Ezekiel Tuma, John Cunha, and Luis Cunha, ASAR – Al Ruwayeh & Partners

Robert Katz and Charles Ruck, Latham & Watkins

Robert M Katz and Charles Ruck, Latham & Watkins

Robert Katz and Charles Ruck, Latham & Watkins