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The private equity firm’s acquisition of a majority stake in the German hearing aid business used a new-style management participation vehicle and novel warrants

The path to new debt controls in Europe has been gradual and deliberate. Citi's Kepler Geertsema and Jackie Leggett analyse the trend in the context of the restriction on indebtedness covenant

Africa’s governments are pushing the indigenisation of major projects. For international sponsors and lenders, it introduces home and host country compliance concerns

The region’s multilaterals are moving beyond debt financing. Here’s what co-investors must consider

Luis Gabriel Morcillo-Méndez Maria Camila Ordoñez The Colombian Ministry of Finance enacted Decree 1648 of 2014, by which it incorporated hybrid instruments into the Colombian regulation, particularly in connection with financial institutions. This comes as a result of recommendations made by the Basel Committee on Bank Supervision (BCBS) regarding hybrid instruments and their incorporation as mechanisms for issuers' absorption of losses. By means of such decree, the Ministry included hybrid instruments as part of the additional basic capital of the Colombian institutional entities and established the required criteria for losses absorption. This innovative action allows financial institutions, from now on, to issue hybrid instruments and use them not just as a temporary financing source, but as a future losses absorption mechanism, which will prevent them from an actual liquidation or facilitate their financial recovery.

Oene Marseille Emir Nurmansyah Indonesia's Ministry of Trade has issued a regulation requiring the use of a letter of credit (LC) for the export of certain commodities. Under the new regulation, payments for export of crude palm oil, coals, oil and gas, and certain minerals including steel, gold, and nickel are to be done by way of an LC. Payments from export of manufactured goods are exempted from the regulation. The regulation also mandates that the payment price stated in the LC should not be lower than the world market price of the exported goods. Further, the paying bank in this process is required to be a qualified domestic bank (Bank Devisa di dalam negeri). LC payment performed by a foreign branch of an Indonesian-headquartered bank is disallowed.

Pedro Cortés Marta Mourão On January 5 2015, the Official Gazette published Law 1/2015, which provides for the new legal regime on the system of qualifications in the fields of urban construction and urbanism. This new law will come into force on July 1 2015 and was enacted as a response to the tremendous growth that Macau SAR has been facing in the civil construction and urbanism sectors.

Roberto MacLean Article 106 of the Peruvian Ley General de Sociedades (Law of Corporations) establishes that a corporation may not grant loans or provide guarantees to third parties, in support of the acquisition of shares issued by such corporation. Some argue that this constitutes an absolute prohibition, and that any agreement providing such financing is null and void. With this in mind, some practitioners have designed structures that they believe avoid the prohibition simply because they avoid the form of a direct financing prohibited by article 106, hoping form will prevail over substance if the case comes to court.

Sarah El Serafy The Qatar Financial Markets Authority (QFMA) issued rules on margin trading on September 10 2014. Prior to the issuance of the Margin Trading Rules, margin trading was only mentioned as a regulated activity under Law 8 of 2012 (QFMA Law) among other activities listed in the definition of 'financial services. The margin trading process for customers of a QFMA-licensed financial services company is spelt out in detail under the Margin Trading Rules. The Rules cover the opening of the account up to the registering of shares with the Qatar Central Securities Depository (QCSD), as well as registering increases on the customer's accounts opened by the financial services firm managing the account for the customer.

For decades, taxpayers have been bedeviled by the distinction between trading in stocks and securities (eligible for a safe harbour) and lending (generally a taxable business).