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KKR's $200 million investment into Masan Consumer highlights private equity's renewed interest in Vietnam

The Arden Alternative Strategies Fund represents a new investment model that is potentially more responsive to events and changing markets than other mutual funds.

Takashi Itokawa On February 18 2013, the Densai-net claim settlement system came online. Densai-net is a settlement service system offered by densai.net Co, for electronically recorded claims. densai.net Co is a company established by the Japanese Bankers Associations, which is comprised of those banks, bank holding companies and bankers associations active in Japan, and licensed to record and maintain electronic claims. Since almost all of financial institutions in Japan that have corporate banking operations participate in Densai-net, users of this claim settlement system are able to access not only the member banks of Japanese Bankers Associations, but also credit associations (Shinkin banks), credit unions (Shinyo Kinko) and the Central Bank for Commercial and Industrial Associations (Shoko Chukin Bank), each of which have long played central roles in financing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Japan. The legislation establishing Densai-net illustrates its two main objectives: improving Japan's business infrastructure; and, facilitating financing for SMEs. It is hoped that Densai-net will allow SMEs to raise capital in a more efficient manner and that this, in turn, will encourage economic growth. The applicable laws and regulations were designed to allow for universal electronic account settlement services, to replace traditional note settlement methods, which entail the endorsement requirements for the transfer of notes and discounting. In addition, the applicable laws and regulations were designed for global electronic settlement services to provide lenders with a prompt and reliable method to collect claims. Further, it is anticipated that the introduction of Densai-net will encourage the factoring of accounts receivables and further increase the amount of capital in the market for lending purposes.

Daniel Futej Daniel Grigel The Government of the Slovak Republic has decided to institute a unitary health insurance system; this comes in the wake of its approval on 31 October 2012 of the Project for Instituting a Unitary Health Insurance System (the Project). In Slovakia today, there are two private health insurance companies operating in the public health insurance system to be affected by the envisaged system change, along with one other state health insurance company. The Project compares the various options for instituting a unitary health insurance system, and describes the procedure for the voluntary buyout of the shares of private health insurance companies, as well as procedures in the event of expropriation of those shares. These will be laid down in detail in the accompanying act, which is expected to come into force on May 1 2013.

It's understandable that Mongolia's democratic government is concerned about its citizens benefiting from the enormous inbound investment targeting its natural resources. But resource nationalism is not the answer.

"Notoriously ambiguous", "historically obscure", "troublesome" – these are just a few of the words IFLR readers have used to describe the boilerplate sovereign pari passu clause in recent months. Great news then, that this month could see the grand finale to the long running and superlative-friendly sovereign debt restructuring trial – NML Capital v Argentina... right? Well, not so much.

Mian Muhammad Nazir The United Arab Emirates, particularly Dubai, has always been amongst the few most comfortable places for Islamic finance. It has received significant support from the Government, regulators and stakeholders. Yet despite the popularity of Islamic finance in the UAE, and UAE's contribution in the growth of Islamic finance, the legal and regulatory infrastructure has always needed further improvement in order to keep pace with the challenges of time and to further strengthen the confidence of the stakeholders in the Islamic finance industry. As expected, the latest initiatives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Prime Minister and Vice President of the UAE and ruler of Dubai, have once again offered a remarkable degree of comfort to the industry. The initiatives will lead the UAE, and particularly Dubai, through a series of practical steps, which will pave the way for the growth of Islamic finance on a solid foundation. The proposed initiatives will entail industry specific and robust legal, judicial and regulatory reforms, which will provide a level playing field for the Islamic finance industry, to which it has been aspiring since its inception. What Islamic finance industry would certainly welcome is the review of Federal Law number 6 of 1985 regarding Islamic banks, financial institutions and investment companies.

US rule-writing is looking in the wrong direction

In the United States, we've long distinguished between the requirements applicable to private offerings and those applicable to public offerings. In fact, there were clearly delineated lines that couldn't be crossed in the context of a private offering. A private offering was understood to be an offering made principally to institutional or sophisticated investors that had a pre-existing relationship with the issuer or the financial intermediary, and had access to financial or other information about the issuer. General solicitation was strictly forbidden, and the securities sold in unregistered offerings were subject to transfers restrictions such that they were not fungible with the issuer's securities trading on an exchange. Over time, the lines between private and public have become increasingly blurred. The rising popularity of hybrid offering techniques, like Pipe transactions, which have as their objective making privately offered securities more liquid and less private in character have contributed to this. Also, the holding period for restricted securities to become freely transferable has been shortened, and private secondary trading markets are becoming more important venues. Of course, the biggest changes to our first principles of securities regulation have been brought about by the JOBS Act, which permits general solicitation to be used, and permits social media and the internet to become capital raising tools for exempt offerings. So, it is easy to see that private offerings are becoming more, as it were, public.

The latest corporate law changes are too prescriptive