Search results for

The trend to mould the Commercial Code of Japan to business needs continues. From April 1 2002, amendments to the Commercial Code will dramatically relax the restrictions on voting rights of shareholders of Japanese joint-stock companies (kabushiki kaisha).

On December 19 2001 the Finnish Association of Securities Dealers, the Finnish Association of Mutual Funds, the Financial Supervision Authority, the Finnish Shareholders' Association and the Finnish Bankers' Association agreed to set up a Securities Committee to settle disputes, issue recommendations and handle other issues concerning securities trading.

While the EU prevaricates about key areas of corporate and capital markets legislation, France has been pushing to reform its domestic rules to free itself of old fashioned restrictions. Thomas Williams reports on the progress made, that still to come and how lawyers are making the most of the new rules

"If you don't maximize due diligence regardless of what is going on in the market, you haven't been doing your job properly"

Allen & Overy and Linklaters have teamed up with two Finnish law firms to work on a €1billion ($1.75 billion) cross-border brewery merger. Partner Matthew Middleditch is leading a Linklaters team working with local counsel Dittmar & Indrenius to advise Scottish & Newcastle on its conditional takeover offer for Hartwall, Finland's leading beer and soft drinks company. The Scottish & Newcastle brewing group includes the UK's Scottish Courage, France's Brasseries Kronenbourg and Belgium's Alken Maes. Hartwall's portfolio includes Finland's most popular lager, Lapin Kulta.

In the wake of the Enron collapse, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been quick to put forward proposals to improve accounting and financial disclosure, in the hope of preventing any future disasters. Leslie Silverman and Mark Adams of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, New York, and Sebastian Sperber and Robert Williams in Hong Kong review the SEC’s statements and explain how companies should react when preparing financial disclosure press releases and reports filed with the Commission

A new law was introduced on June 21 2001 to regulate international arbitration proceedings in Turkey. The new International Arbitration Law No 4686 is a supplement to the existing domestic arbitration regulation, which is set out in the Code of Civil Procedure (CCP). The Arbitration Law was enacted in parallel with the general trend towards liberalization of international arbitration legislation globally.

On June 4 2001, Mexico enacted a new Investment Companies Law (Ley de sociedades de inversión, or ICL). Most of the provisions of the new ICL became effective on December 4 2001, and all remaining provisions became effective as of January 1 2002. The ICL is the most recent attempt by the Mexican regulatory authorities to improve and modernize the asset management industry. It provides for very important changes to the way the industry will be shaped in the future. Although the regulators are still analyzing the issuance of specific regulations, we hope that they will be finalized and issued no later than the second half of 2002. The intent is to give a boost to the industry and to try to raise it to international standards. When compared to the macroeconomic size of asset management in other countries, we envision that the Mexican market has a potential growth rate of at least 30% per year over the next 10 years. In fact, the average growth rate of the industry during 2001 was approximately 67%, during the last three years it averaged 40% growth per year.

On December 5 2001 the Minister for Finance announced the final budget of the present government prior to the next general election, which is due to take place in the first half of 2002.

The listing rules of the Hong Kong Growth Enterprise Market (GEM) were amended as of October 1 2001. Key revisions of note include the following: