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What does the Canadian government’s initial rejection of the Petronas/Progress deal signal for SOE investment, and Cnooc’s bid for Nexen?

The Panamanian bank has used a contractual structure to issue Latin America’s first cross-border covered bond

Structured products, securitisations and commodity pools must navigate a patchwork of Dodd-Frank regulations. But recent interpretive guidance means all is not lost

At some point during most people's childhood, there was an evil bogeyman lurking under a bed, or hidden in a closet, ready to make its presence known at a moment's notice. The bogeyman of the day for many market participants has become the commodity pool issue. This issue arises because the Dodd-Frank Act amended the definition of "commodity pool", making it broader by including any enterprise operated for the purpose of trading in swaps. Trading in swaps may seem like a high bar, but there is little guidance as to the type of entity that constitutes a commodity pool and some of that guidance suggests that entering into a single swap may be sufficient to trigger the registration requirement.

The UK's Association of Investment Companies (AIC) has called for the July 2013 implementation date for the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) to be pushed to 2014.

The foreign owners of foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs, excluding wholly foreign-owned companies for the purpose of this article) are eager to reap the advantages of the increasingly prosperous capital markets in China to raise funds in renminbi and enhance their exposure to the Chinese market. Quite a number of these foreign investors struggle with the idea that the capital market in China dislikes so-called foreign gold miners, and thus FIEs are hindered from listing on the A-share market. This opinion may be quite wrong.

The growing interest of foreign investors in the Colombian capital markets has increased portfolio investments in local securities to year records. This has led the Superintendence of Finance (SFC) to regulate proxy voting on local listed securities by foreign investors. External Circular 022 of 2012 details proxy voting for foreign investors through local securities depositaries and adds new duties in connection with their interaction with foreign depositaries.

The long-awaited removal of Cyprus from the 'List of the States and Territories providing preferential tax treatment and (or) not requiring disclosure and furnishing of the information upon conducting of financial transactions (offshore zones)' appended to Order 108n of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated November 13 2007 will formally take effect at the beginning of 2013.

Freddy Karyadi Oene Marseille The Indonesian government has issued a revision of the mining and coal mining business services regulation through Regulation of the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources No. 24 of 2012 (which amends Regulation 28/2009). The revision provides a list of sub-fields of mining business service (Usaha Jasa Pertambangan), such as the field of general survey which may have sub-fields consisting of reconnaissance, remote sensing, and prospecting. There is also a detailed list of non-core mining business licences (Usaha Jasa Pertambangan Non Inti), such as civil construction and health.

Yutaro Fujimoto On March 11 2011, just a few hours before the now infamous Great East Japan Earthquake, the Japanese Cabinet adopted the Act on Special Measures Concerning the Procurement of Renewable Energy by Operators of Electric Utilities, setting out the legal framework for the establishment of a feed-in tariff (FIT) programme in Japan. The Japanese FIT programme places an obligation on electric utility companies to purchase the electricity generated from renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind, hydro and biomass, at a set price and term, which will be established annually by the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry on an annual basis. The programme contemplates that the additional costs incurred by electric utility companies to purchase such electricity will be passed along to the end-consumer, but subject to certain adjustments at the decision of the Minister and the Agency for Redistribution. The objective of the Act was originally to strengthen the energy independence of Japan by encouraging the use of solar, wind, or other domestic renewable resources while addressing environmental concerns such as global warming. Following the Great East Japan Earthquake and, in particular, the public outcry against nuclear power following the disaster at the Fukushima Nuclear Plant, the Act garnered significant public attention as a means to develop alternative sources of energy for Japan. As a result, the Japanese Diet accelerated its approval of the Act. It came into force on July 1 2012.