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The government has raised sectoral the cap for foreign direct investment in telecommunications from 49% to 74%. The decision benefits services such as basic, cellular, unified access services, national and international long distance, V-SAT, public mobile radio trunked services, global mobile personal communication services and other value-added services.

Woong-Soon Song, Tong-Gun Lee and Robert Young explain how a bitter takeover battle brought about changes to takeover rules that will soon come into force

BUPA: keeping its finances healthy BUPA Finance in December 2004 issued £330 million ($621 million) in subordinated perpetual bonds. The issue by the UK healthcare provider is the first deal involving upper Tier 2 bonds to give the issuer unlimited discretion to defer interest payments. Slaughter and May advised BUPA Finance and BUPA Insurance, while Allen & Overy advised HSBC and ABN AMRO as lead managers.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has endured a difficult few years. Criticized at home for what some claimed was a failure to prevent corporate scandals such as Enron, it has also faced challenges from activist state attorneys-general and been blamed for what others see as over-regulation. Abroad, corporates continue to lobby against what is perceived as US regulatory overreach.

Germany's financial regulator has proposed guidelines explaining how public companies should interpret the increased disclosure and market abuse obligations created by German implementation of the EU's Market Abuse Directive in November 2004.

Adam Glass, securitization specialist at Linklaters in New York, introduces an occasional series on partners' personal experiences in corporate finance and what it takes to succeed (or fail) in their practice area of choice

Saudi Arabia has set up a new regulatory regime for registering interests in real property and related transactions. The Law for Registration of Real Property (the Law) was published on May 18 2002 and became effective one year later. Currently, interests in real property and related transactions (for example, transfers of ownership, mortgages, the creation of Waqfs (similar to the Western concept of trusts) with respect to real property and bequeathing real property through wills) are registered with notaries in special registers maintained for this purpose. Under the Law, new real property registers (the Registers) will be set up jointly by the Ministry of Municipalities and Rural Affairs and the Ministry of Justice. The Registers will be maintained and administrated the Department of Real Property Registration, a department of the Ministry of Justice. The Law requires all real property interests and transactions to be recorded in the Register, failing which no real property interest or transaction will have legal effect as to third parties. The Law further provides that lease agreements with terms exceeding five years will not be effective as to third parties for the period exceeding the first five years of the lease term unless they are recorded in the Registers.

Changes are proposed to Jersey's companies and bankruptcy laws to introduce protected cell companies (PCCs) into Jersey law and to streamline local solvency test provisions. The Economic Development Committee of the Island of Jersey, a leading offshore finance centre, has issued a consultation paper on the proposed amendments.

IFLR is pleased to announce the short-listed deals and law firms for the magazine's sixth annual European awards

Richard Baumann examines some of the practical implications for counsel of the recent SEC securities offering reform proposals