Search results for

The Ministry of Finance is in the process of making an integral revision of supervisory legislation reform in the financial services industry. The entire legislation on financial supervision must be revized as a result of the interaction between various financial sector and the required improvements to financial supervision. The Ministry of Finance has commenced consultation with the financial industry on the first part of the new legislation in connection with this revision.

Dematerialized shares are shares for which no certificates may be issued. Now Japanese joint-stock companies are generally required to issue share certificates. Many public companies' share certificates are deposited at the Japan Securities Depository Center, Incorporated (JASDEC), the central securities depository providing both depository and book-entry settlement services for marketable securities. For share certificates that have been deposited at JASDEC, no physical delivery of them is required in order to effect a transfer of shares. In September 2003, the Legislative Council of the Ministry of Justice published an outline for a new law, expected to be passed in 2003 or 2004, which will eliminate the issuance and use of share certificates of public companies and certain non-public companies.

One of Hungary's last remaining privatizations was finalized last month. Austria's Erste Bank agreed to buy a 99.97% stake in Postabank, the country's seventh largest bank, for Ft101.3 billion ($460 million).

Singapore Power closed its multi-currency global bond issue in late October after choosing a mix of English, New York and Singapore law to govern its new medium term note (MTN) programme.

Irish legislators' recent overhaul of the country's securitization framework, designed to make Ireland a first-choice location for onshore special purpose vehicles (SPVs), is paying off. Last month the Bank of Ireland closed the first collateralized debt obligation (CDO) using an Irish special purpose vehicle, the €409 million Partholon CDO. The offering, backed by a diversified portfolio of secured and mezzanine leveraged loans, is expected to be the first in a series issued by the bank as it looks to expand its leveraged finance business.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer helped structure a euro-denominated securitization for Korean company Shinhan Card, the first of its type from the country.

Astro All Asia Networks, Malaysia's leading pay-TV operator, has become the first foreign-incorporated company to list on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange.

Sidley Austin Brown & Wood and White & Case advised on the first international securitization from Kazakhstan.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) decided last month to delay implementing its controversial Interpretation 46 for some vehicles.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced plans to create a new set of uniform rules governing short selling, which will apply to all exchange-listed and Nasdaq NMS securities.