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It’s crunch time for the revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive. Esma must heed the industry’s concerns over liquidity, costs and access to prevent disaster in 2017

Mark Brown and Alex Ping of Al Tamimi & Company look at recent developments in the UAE legal system affecting the financial sector and the establishment of the Abu Dhabi Global Market

Market participants have warned about liquidity shortages and market volatility as possible causes of the next so-called black swan event.

As Europe awaits Esma's latest move in the implementation of its Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (Mifid II) some fairly strong theories are doing the rounds. As this month's cover story on page 32 shows, the directive in its current form could dry up liquidity, concentrate trading venues and even kill off European financial centres, depending on who you believe.

Markus Bolsinger Wendy Pan Judah Frogel Penny Zacharias Mario Nigro April witnessed the continuing defection of talent from Pillsbury to WINSTON & STRAWN. Following the moves of 14 partners in March, Peter Morgan, who specialises in structured finance, private equity, and fund formation, made the move to Winston's New York office.

Chinese companies must wake up to the realities of operating in the US Chinese companies making acquisitions in the US should expect increased litigation risk, according to counsel in both countries. The best form of protection is distance between the parent and subsidiary. There's been a tangible increase in the number of Chinese firms purchasing US factories, plants and real estate in the country over recent years. In the past, litigating against a Chinese company was perceived as fruitless because it was difficult to collect on a ruling. But with those companies now holding more assets in the US, there are more opportunities for them to be seized.

Oene Marseille Emir Nurmansyah The central bank of Indonesia, Bank Indonesia, has issued regulation 16/21/2014, which is effective as of January 1 2015, requiring all non-exempt, non-bank entities to comply with certain minimum hedging, liquidity, credit rating, and reporting requirements when they take out foreign loans. The regulation applies to all foreign loans, which is defined broadly to include all rupiah or foreign-currency denominated debts owing by a resident of Indonesia to a non-resident. Resident of Indonesia includes any person or legal entity that is has been or plans to be domiciled in Indonesia for at least one year.

Rodrigo de Campos Vieira Due to the historic lack of financing sources for hotel projects in Brazil, the market has sought out creative fundraising mechanisms to meet the substantial deficit of hotel rooms in Brazil. The most successful financing structure known to date, referred to as condo-hotels, involves the sale of autonomous units from real-estate development projects or as an ideal fraction of real estate. The former integrates a pool of hotels managed by a professional operator, to individuals or corporations. The proceeds of the real-estate development project are distributed to the owners of the condo-hotel units by the operator of the pool of hotels.

Vicente D Gerochi Arvin Kristopher Razon The Philippine public-private partnership (PPP) programme, which the administration of President Aquino hopes will fast-track infrastructure development, has attracted a lot of interest from local and foreign investors. Nine projects have been awarded since 2010, including the NAIA Expressway, the LRT Line 1 Cavite Extension, the Mactan-Cebu International Airport Terminal, the Automated Fare Collection System, and the public school projects. Aside from these, 11 projects were rolled out in 2014, including the Laguna Lakeshore Expressway, which is the biggest project to date with a value of $2.73 billion. Local government units have also initiated their own PPP projects. With 50 more projects in the pipeline, the PPP programme could be the key to addressing the country's critical infrastructure backlog. However, concerns have been raised as to the sustainability of the programme. Will succeeding administrations continue to support it? Can best practices developed from, and the lessons of, past biddings be institutionalised?

Nicola de Sylva When the Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) was first set up, only firms that provided services to the financial service industries were permitted to be established. That is no longer the case, and QFC licensed entities now serve a wide array of businesses. The permitted activities that can be undertaken in or from the QFC are prescribed by Qatari Law 7 of 2005, as amended (QFC Law) and are known as permitted activities, which include regulated and non-regulated activities.