Search results for

2000 was a bumper year for lawyers in Paris working at the high-end of capital markets and M&A – and not just those at the international firms. Now, as Thomas Williams reports from Paris, it is up to the regulators to make sure restrictive regulations do not stifle the boom

Shareholders in European exchange Easdaq have decided to abandon rules prohibiting individual parties from owning more than 20% of the exchange. Previously, a shareholder with a stake over 20% would have been unable to vote at shareholders meetings. The London Stock Exchange has a 5% cap. The decision, which would allow an individual to take a majority stake in the exchange, comes amid rumours that Easdaq is considering a merger with Nasdaq.

The Bills of Exchange Act (the Act), which regulates the law on bills of exchange, cheques and promissory notes was enacted in 1964. The Bills of Exchange Amendment Act of 2000 amends the Act, mainly for the protection of consumers and also to keep in step with the times.

The Ontario government’s rejection of the Securities Commission proposals for derivatives regulation threatens to destroy five years of work. Margaret Grottenthaler of Stikeman Elliott, Toronto, reflects on the government’s negative response and asks where the market can go from here

Structural and cultural obstacles within South Korea's takeover market may stifle plans by the government to boost mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity in the country, say some lawyers.

The French securitization market has experienced a significant boom over the last 18 months, as corporates and French financial institutions alike learn to reap the benefits of an increasingly flexible and reliable legal framework introduced by the law of December 23 1988. This established a new type of entity, the fonds commun de créances (FCC) aimed at providing market participants with a vehicle for securitization structures. In so doing, France was the first civil law country to deal successfully with the constraints imposed by the civil law regime in terms of the transfer of assets and create an entity capable of matching the flexibility available in Anglo Saxon jurisdictions.

The Belgian voice recognition group Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products (L&H) has broken off its relationship with Belgian firm Loeff Claeys Verbeke. L&H has endured a crippling last 10 months. Accounting irregularities and a Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation into fraudulent activity has seen the company's share price slump.

Synthetic securitization was recently introduced successfully into Asia in the HK Synthetic MBS issue, which was the first transaction to address the specific issues raised by the Asian capital markets. Patrick Lines and John Elias of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in Hong Kong describe the deal and explore some of the primary structural issues that had to be addressed

The Commodity Futures Modernization Act will revolutionize the regulation of derivatives trading in the US by loosening the ties on larger market users and allowing the SEC to take part. Philip McBride Johnson of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom reviews the Act

China’s securities market has never been clearly market-oriented or under the firm rule of law. However, Kaili’s court case against the China Securities Regulatory Commission resulted in a landmark decision in favour of the plaintiff. Jingzhou Tao, managing partner of Coudert Brothers’ Beijing office, explains the importance of the ruling