Search results for

Gerald Schmidsberger is an attorney at law and partner of Saxinger, Chalupsky, Weber & Partners, Vienna, Linz, Wels. His main areas of work are corporate law, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), securities regulations, banking and finance. He is a lecturer and author of several corporate law and M&A publications. Before becoming an attorney-at-law Mr Schmidsberger worked for an international accounting firm.

2001: The year that singapore charged into M&A By Lee Suet Fern and Lim Merng Phang of Shearman & Sterling Stamford, Singapore

The leading international rating agencies are facing an investigation by US lawmakers that could lead to more regulation over their activities.

The UK has moved to safeguard London's future as a financial hub by protecting securitizations from revamped insolvency rules in the UK Enterprise Bill, published at the end of March. The government has listened to the concerns of banks, lawyers and accountants that the Bill could threaten the future of securitizations and other capital markets transactions in the UK by removing the right for secured creditors to appoint administrative receivers. Losing this right would make it hard for secured creditors to enforce security over the assets of a bankrupt company ahead of unsecured creditors.

In late March the European Parliament passed laws recognizing a pan-European prospectus, clamping down on insider trading and introducing tougher rules for bank insurance.

Under the terms of its entry to the WTO, China is committed to allowing greater access to its banking sector. Despite the slow inroads being made by foreign institutions, however, rules remain in place that will slow their progress, as Lester Ross of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, Beijing, explains

Shearman & Sterling opened its first office in Italy on March 18 in Rome and plans to open another in Milan. Partners Michael Bosco and Robert Ellison, together with Italian lead associate Domenico Fanuele, will lead the Rome operation. The office initially comprises about 10 lawyers with room for 25. And the firm is hunting for more. "We are actively looking for an Italian partner [from another firm]," said Ellison last month.

Growth in the Canadian securitization slowed dramatically last year but there are grounds for optimism in favourable treatment by the courts and the growth of products such as extendable commercial paper as a liquidity substitute. Martin Fingerhut of Blake, Cassels & Graydon, Toronto, looks at the market’s future

Linklaters & Alliance has won the top award at IFLR's European awards ceremony in London, scooping the title of European capital markets team of the year.

The Andersen Legal network started to break up in April after plans to merge the auditor with big five rival KPMG collapsed.