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Patrick McGurn Shareholder rights plans are often understood as anything but. By giving shareholders the opportunity to dilute a potential owner's stake in a company, they have effectively deterred any and all hostile acquisitions of companies that have adopted them.

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.

Infrastructure is one of the main areas related to the project finance market which the Costa Rican government is developing. Recent projects include the San José-Caldera road concession, the investment management contract for airport services at Juan Santamaria International Airport, the concession for the new passenger terminal building at Liberia International Airport, and the concession for the construction of a grain wharf at the Port of Caldera, with total investments in excess of $450 million.

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.

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.

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.

Patrick Wieland Forests sequester and store vast amounts of carbon dioxide and play a fundamental role in global climate regulation. Yet deforestation and forest degradation of tropical areas is accelerating dramatically. Forest loss is responsible for between 3.6 and 4.5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year, representing 17-20% of global greenhouse gas emissions (IPCC, 2007). The carbon sequestration and storage functions of the world's forests are a type of ecosystem service. Ecosystem services are generally taken for granted: we benefit from the clean air and carbon offsetting services that forests provide, but do not equally share the costs for their preservation. To correct this situation, mechanisms to value ecosystem services through economic incentives have arisen as an international strategy. Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) is one such incentive scheme.

Nicholas Chang Gerald Cheong The Singapore Exchange (SGX) has proposed some significant initiatives to the offer structure relating to initial public offerings (IPOs). In Singapore, the offer structure for an IPO normally comprises a placement tranche and a public subscription tranche. For Mainboard IPOs, the SGX listing rules specify that the shareholding spread and distribution requirement for companies with market capitalisation below S$300 million ($244.9 million) must have a public float of at least 25% to be held by at least 500 shareholders. This number of shareholders includes shareholders from both the public subscription tranche and the placement tranche. This rule provides assurance of fair and orderly trading of shares when listed. There is, however, no requirement for Mainboard listing applications to allocate a minimum proportion of shares to the public subscription tranche as a method of offering.

Daniel Futej Daniel Grigel Big changes to the Slovak Commercial Code came into force on October 1 2012. These changes toughen the criteria for incorporating limited liability companies and for transferring majority ownership interest in those companies. Further changes seek to toughen the criteria for voluntary value added tax registration for certain defined high-risk entities. Under the new rules, a limited liability company may not be incorporated by a person who has tax arrears exceeding €170 ($217). Tax arrears means any amount owed on any type of tax which has become overdue (income tax, value added tax, excise tax or local tax). This change is intended to prevent natural and legal persons from incorporating limited liability companies when those persons have incurred that tax obligation and have failed to pay the tax owed by the time they are attempting to incorporate a limited liability company. All persons intending to incorporate a limited liability company will first have to prove they have no tax arrears by requesting the tax authority's written consent to the registration of a limited liability company in the Commercial Registry. Provided there are no tax arrears, the tax authority will provide consent within three business days of lodging the request.