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A judgment from the Hong Kong High Court to order the winding up of a PRC government window company is encouraging, says Susan Kendall. No longer will foreign creditors have to rely entirely on unfamiliar local courts

Carol Hansell examines the progress towards improving corporate governance in Canada in the shadow of US reforms

Establishing private equity funds (PEFs) in Korea is now possible under the amended Indirect Investment Asset Management Business Act (IIAMBA), which took effect as of December 6 2004.

On October 29 2004 the Swedish Supreme Court rendered a judgment that should be of interest for many directors of Swedish limited liability companies. The case concerned a Swedish limited liability company that had omitted to close the accounts on time for the financial years 2000 and 2001 with annual reports. The Supreme Court held (just like the District Court but in contrast to the majority of the judges of the Court of Appeal) that these omissions constituted accounting offences according to chapter 11, section 5 of the Swedish Penal Code.

Global shipping companies might want to consider operating from Indian special purpose vehicles, now that the much-awaited tonnage tax regime in the Finance Act 2004 - 2005 has been introduced. This new regime will allow Indian shipping companies to opt for either tonnage or corporate tax.

Many companies in Indonesia, whether foreign or locally owned, operate with negative equity, meaning that the total assets of the company are less than its total liabilities. The principal reason for this, other than the significant depreciation of the Rupiah against the dollar during the Asian financial crisis, has been the substantial retained losses incurred by companies, which would be offset in the past by the companies' share capital.

On October 6 2004 the Danish Government introduced a bill to amend the Danish Securities Trading Act. The purpose of these proposed changes is to a wide extent to implement the EU directives on market abuse and prospectuses and to adjust the Danish legislative framework in accordance with the Commission's Regulation on buyback programmes.

Under the International Accounting Standards (IAS) Regulation (2002/1606/EC), listed companies must prepare consolidated financial statements (or individual financial statements if they are not preparing consolidated financial statements) for financial years commencing on or after January 1 2005, in accordance with IAS/IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards).

Article 66 of Consob Regulation No 11971 of May 14 1999 requires Italian listed companies issuing bonds to inform the public and Consob promptly of events occurring in their or their subsidiaries' sphere of activity that are likely to have a significant effect on the price of the issuer's financial instruments. Article 66 applies irrespective of whether the placement is private or public, or listed.

Following the implementation of EU Directive 2002/65/EC concerning the distance marketing of consumer financial services, suppliers of financial services in Austria are bound to observe the Act on Distance Marketing of Consumer Financial Services (Fern-Finanzdienstleistungs-Gesetz [FernFinG]) from October 1 2004 when offering financial services by means of distance communication to consumers (that is, persons or entities not acting in their professional capacity).