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Have your say now on how sanctions on Russia will affect the country

As term loan B deals grow outside the US, investors must beware of the risk posed by bankruptcy regimes in new jurisdictions

Clean Energy Finance Corporation’s loan to an Australian wave energy company introduced a new financing structure for projects that are not yet commercialised

Roman Churakov of Herbert Smith Freehills explains how the country’s public-private partnerships are developing

A lack of projects to absorb the growing volume of private debt funds now being raised could be Europe's next challenge

The Korean law on class action lawsuits which went into effect on January 1 2005 is the Securities Class Action Lawsuits Act. As of now, this statute applies only to securities-related claims for damages based on false securities reports and information circulars, false business reports, semi-annual or quarterly reports, use of non-public information, stock price manipulation or negligent auditing by an external auditor. Due to various strict requirements in addition to such limited grounds for the commencement of a class action lawsuit in Korea, this statute has rarely been used. Thus far, only six class action lawsuits have been filed, and even among such lawsuits, not one has progressed to a final decision from the court of first instance. Due to criticisms of this status quo, the National Assembly and citizens' groups have been discussing a complete overhaul of the Securities Class Action Lawsuits Act.

Vijaya Sampath As of April 1 2014, 283 sections of the Companies Act 2013 (of the total 470 sections) and the related rules dealing with these sections have been notified by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. Many new concepts have been introduced, the scope of others has been widened and many sections in the previous Act of 1956 have been dropped. Some of the new concepts range from new classes of one person and small companies to shareholder empowerment through class action suits. Certain profit-making companies have to spend 2% of their average net profits in the three preceding financial years on specified social schemes, or explain their reasons for not doing so.

Teruyoshi Takahashi On April 1 2014, Tokyo Stock Exchange enforced an Amendment to the Securities Listing Regulations. Events that will trigger timely disclosure for listed real estate investment trust (REIT) securities (disclosure events) are substantially expanded. This Amendment was brought about in connection with the Amendment to the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act as of April 1 2014, which made insider trading rules applicable to the trading of listed investment units issued by J-REITs which invest in real estate properties. Under the new Securities Listing Regulations, the following items (in summary and not limited to the following) are newly provided as disclosure events (for some items, exemptions are provided in the Enforcement Rules for Securities Listing Regulations):

Pedro Cortés Marta Mourão Teixeira Legislation on anti-money laundering was passed in Macau in 2006, although there were some previous regulations already providing for it. Law 2/2006 on the prevention and repression of money laundering crimes of April 3 2006, established measures aimed at preventing and suppressing the criminal offence of money laundering. It defined the gains of money laundering as any assets derived from the commission, through any form of participation, of a typified act, which would be punishable with a penalty of imprisonment of a maximum term of three years.

Klaus Henrik Wiese-Hansen Christoffer N Sortland Implementation of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) in Norway is gradually nearing. On February 18 2014, the Ministry of Finance sent a draft for new regulations on public hearing, with a deadline for comments of May 18 2014. This article provides a short summary of the draft regulations, which partly concerns the EU Commission Delegated Regulations under the AIFMD. Norwegian authorities failed to implement the AIFMD within the transposition deadline of July 22 2013. The Ministry of Finance is drafting an AIFM Act, which is expected to be proposed before Easter 2014. Implementation of the AIFMD in Norway will probably take place on or around July 1 2014.