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Both bidders and targets will now need one

Mayer Brown’s Kevin Hawken, Carol Hitselberger and Jason Kravitt explain why the revised securitisation framework will affect EU and US banks differently

Sub-Saharan sovereigns’ dollar-bond borrowings have spiked. But with macroeconomic conditions worsening, what will stop the build-up of risks in the nascent market?

Non-performing loans are a serious obstacle to the region’s economic recovery. Freshfields’ Agnes Molnar analyses the local and cross-country initiatives that promise to find value in these bad assets

Rocky Alejandro L Reyes In 2013, after several decades of implementing measures to solve its economic problems, the Philippines attained an investment grade rating from the big three credit rating agencies. The investment grade rating and the fast pace of economic development in the Philippines should have attracted a lot of foreign direct investment (FDI). However, Philippine laws' restrictions on foreign ownership of land, educational institutions, public utilities and mass media, to name a few, continued to hinder the growth of such investment. Many foreign ownership restrictions on certain business activities remain in the Constitution and statutes. For example, the ownership of private lands is exclusively reserved for Philippine citizens and corporations with at least 60% of its capital owned by Filipino citizens. The exploitation of natural resources, including all modes of potential energy, is subject to the same nationality requirement. This limited foreign equity investment in renewable energy development, such as hydro, geothermal, wind and solar power generation.

Carmen Arribillaga Sorondo Alicia Galindo Aragoncillo The end of the year was extremely busy but successful for the so-called Spanish bad bank, the management company for assets arising from the banking sector reorganisation (Sareb – Sociedad de Gestión de Activos Procedentes de la Restructuración Bancaria). This was due to the sale of several portfolios comprising a large volume of credits (including credits to developers and office buildings and subsidised social housing units), loans (both performing and non-performing) and real estate owned to international institutional investors. These portfolios were carefully selected and structured by Sareb's business team together with external financial advisors to maximise its value. The portfolios were offered to institutional investors in an open competitive process in which they had access to all information through a virtual data room to analyse independently, to then place their binding offers. Many of these transactions (for more than €850 million, or $1 billion, in total) were completed at the end of the year due to their complexity and negotiation process.

A new UK framework designed to hold parties to their promises means care must be taken before making statements in the course of a takeover battle

Onshore ChinaCo bankruptcies will continue to prioritise social stability and local interests over more esoteric financial concerns such as capital structures, according to a recent report by Fitch Ratings.

Fitch's managing director for banks has spoken out about the agency's newly-announced plan to downgrade almost a third of Europe's banks in 2015.

European regulators have refuted allegations that too much regulation has impeded global growth.