LATEST ANALYSIS
May 2010
31 May 2010
Loan buybacks are stepping up, and not just by borrowers deleveraging on the cheap. The result of continuing low secondary market prices for some loans, this debt is up for grabs…
31 May 2010
Here’s one for legal precedent banks: In a rarely seen insight into UK employee compensation schemes, Reed Elsevier, the Anglo-Dutch publishing group, has filed…
31 May 2010
State media whispers that China will launch new investment venues such as futures trading for foreign institutions have tongues wagging about the Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor Scheme (QFII)…
31 May 2010
As the first proxy season for say on pay votes at a number of Canadian companies comes to a close, observers may well be mystified by the results...
28 May 2010
Thanks to a shareholder class action lawsuit, GLG Partners must now be more forcefully questioning the structure of its proposed merger with the UK’s Man Group. While the deal would create…
28 May 2010
The financial reform fireworks are about to begin and both banks and non-banks are concerned. The reforms are focused on the most egregious "trespasses"…
28 May 2010
The SEC finally approved a new rule to enhance disclosure regulations surrounding municipal securities. Muni-bond issuers had grown used to a lighter regulatory touch, but…
28 May 2010
Solar companies spooked by recent subsidy cuts through Europe need not despair. As Chinese companies gain momentum, former non-PRC competitors are morphing into both buyers and vendors…
28 May 2010
From oil production to mobile phones, multinationals are finding that Algeria’s prickly regulatory regimes can be as stifling as the country’s torrid desert heat. Nearly sixty years have passed since…
27 May 2010
Liquidation is the creditor’s last best hope for recovery, as recent filers Anthracite Capital and Air America bear witness. This decision is fraught with controversy, as what began as a hopeful Chapter 11 filing all too often ends in…
27 May 2010
The $41 billion Exxon/XTO merger is moving forward, despite shareholder objections and an arguably permissive MAC out clause. The latter takes on new meaning in light of the BP-induced controversy…
27 May 2010
Rebounding PE funds are refinancing their European portfolio companies, even turning to the U.S. to do it. NXP Semiconductors and its private equity owners…
27 May 2010
The TARP era takes another step toward closure as Wells Fargo & Co recently announced its acquisition of the U.S. Treasury’s warrants issued at the height of the financial crisis...
27 May 2010
A comeback has been structured for once-maligned structured products, despite a backlash against derivative-based financial products. UK debt markets have become awash in these exotic securities…
27 May 2010
The old days of big multinationals breezing into town, shuffling a few papers and leaving the Middle East with a valuable concession are gone. Today, regional governments and sovereign wealth funds want partners, not licensees…
26 May 2010
Regulatory aftershocks from the “flash crash” are becoming more significant than the crash itself. The CFTC and SEC have already joined forces to...
26 May 2010
In a global takeover deal virtually designed to create air miles, billable hours, and precedent banks for lawyers, three companies from different corners of the world are in the grips of a hostile takeover…
26 May 2010
Neither sports teams nor private equity funds have been immune from economic difficulty, and baseball’s Texas Rangers serve as the most recent, glaring example. The team filed for…
26 May 2010
A little known corporate finance structure – the covered bond – is gaining a lot of fans in the Canadian banking industry. Now that two Canadian majors have raised…
26 May 2010
The maturing tastes of Chinese consumers have been keenly tracked by global food companies of all shapes and sizes. Smaller food companies are even jostling…
26 May 2010
The private equity carousel is picking up speed, as Thomas H. Lee Partners has agreed to sell Minnesota-based Michael Foods, Inc. to Goldman...
25 May 2010
Alongside China’s big banks, the country’s smaller state-owned lenders are also scouring for cash through bond or share sales. Overseas financial companies have partnered with…
25 May 2010
Leveraging an ambitious national R&D initiative, Protolix BioTherapeutics, Inc., announced receipt of $4.1 million in government grants from Israel’s Office of Chief Scientist...
25 May 2010
Canadian disclosure rules for companies in the mining business are on the verge of change. The CSA has published proposed rule changes that would impact all issuers in the mineral resource sector…
24 May 2010
In the latest indication that the asset backed securities and car markets are continuing to pick up steam, Honda has offered $1.2 billion in car loan-backed securities through its...
24 May 2010
The traditional exit paths for venture capitalists seeking the biggest bang for their buck were traditionally IPOs or M&A transactions. With a recent spate of venture-backed IPOs and acquisitions, it might seem like there is plenty of liquidity. But…
24 May 2010
Green technology continues to be a hot spot for M&A activity. Clean Diesel Technologies, which focuses on lowering motor vehicle emissions, recently entered into a merger agreement with…
24 May 2010
It’s the size of New York City, but its causeway runs toward Mecca rather than Montauk. The Kingdom of Bahrain is an unquestioned leader in Islamic finance and a...
21 May 2010
“Struggling to pay loans, even considering bankruptcy?” This is now the cry of not only infomercials, but troubled municipalities as well. Major cities such as Las Vegas, Detroit, and Harrisburg are…
21 May 2010
Many companies have removed supermajority voting rules in recent years in response to shareholder criticism. At long last, Macy’s has stepped into the changing room as well…
21 May 2010
In a sign of continued expansion of online gambling, Sportingbet has announced its move from…
21 May 2010
Once veiled by an iron curtain, more companies in the former Soviet bloc are stepping out of obscurity with western capital grabs as the curtain goes up on the economic performance of…
21 May 2010
In the aftershocks of China’s 2008 melamine tainted milk scandal, financial investors such as BlackRock Inc. and Morgan Stanley are fighting to recoup their investments…
21 May 2010
Investment fund consolidations have continued to increase in the UK, and now an acquisition has leapt over “the pond” to ensnare a U.S. firm…
21 May 2010
The chains are off debt markets in the UK and it is covered bonds that are leading the emancipation…
20 May 2010
Hedge funds have been among the brave and bold – and at-times conflicted – providers of credit, amidst credit crisis residue. Fortress, Cerberus and Bain Capital are among those that...
20 May 2010
Daimler’s delisting is the latest sign of German companies abandoning U.S. capital markets, opting instead to list solely in Frankfurt, re-fortified…
20 May 2010
Business risk is mounting on the streets of Thailand as security forces and anti-government demonstrators are clashing in the capital, Bangkok…
20 May 2010
PRC banks are getting serious about their corporate loans and are imposing more stringent lending criteria on borrowers. One U.S.-listed company is even facing…
20 May 2010
Israel’s high tech defense and avionics systems manufacturer Elbit Systems Ltd. announced earlier this week that it will issue a shelf prospectus valid for two years, thus allowing…
19 May 2010
The SEC has announced that “in response to the market disruption of May 6, the national securities exchanges and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) are filing proposed rules under which…”
19 May 2010
Not all Hollywood hits are confined to the silver screen. While the guest appearance of Oracle’s Super-CEO Larry Ellison in a recent blockbuster hit brings to light the big business aspect of Hollywood…
19 May 2010
A group of seemingly unconnected events – the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, Toyota vehicle recalls, logging in Canada’s northern forests, and the Goldman allegations – have dragged the issue of CSR back into the spotlight…
19 May 2010
The Prudential offering document has now been filed, and it is clear proof, if any was needed, of the dare we say monstrous size and complexity of this transaction. This was perhaps to be expected from a deal that is both the undoing of the now-notorious AIG and…
19 May 2010
PE firms of late have developed a taste for investing in bankrupt companies, from General Growth to Six Flags. Electronics maker Spansion is the latest in this line…
19 May 2010
Whopping $500 million fines are just one reason sanctions and anti-money laundering measures continue to haunt international commerce. With advances in…
18 May 2010
Supersized raising plans have been baking for banks in China, and the oven timer is about to go off. After the PRC government boosted requirements for the capital adequacy ratio by…
18 May 2010
In refreshing support for the UK’s environmental credentials, Ascot Environmental has developed regal plans to turn waste into profit, while its British energy counterpart BP watches its own profits go to waste…
17 May 2010
Dual voting classes have taken a step back, even in Canada, a dual-class haven. With Canada's Magna International joining U.S. holdout Hyatt in this move over the last several months…
17 May 2010
In an attempt to fatten up its finances, a well known Chinese fitness company plans to offer sweet retainers not only to its customers but to venture capitalists as well…
14 May 2010
The credit crisis has shifted to a credibility crisis for ratings agencies, besieged by the SEC and litigants alike. For Moody’s and McGraw-Hill (S&P's parent), legal woes are spreading and…
14 May 2010
The recent ruling of the B.C. Securities Commission in Icahn Partners LP and Lions Gate Entertainment Corp seems to suggest that securities regulators in Ontario, Alberta and B.C. do not see eye-to-eye...
14 May 2010
Another PE-backed IPO is unfolding, in particularly complex ways. Retailer Express Inc is going public in a two-step, involving a conversion from LLC structure and then an IPO...
14 May 2010
With Morgan Stanley now joining Goldman in its cross-hairs, the SEC is taking aim at synthetic CDO activity across Wall Street. It was the Street's version of fantasy football…
14 May 2010
Demand for ethical funds and indices has increased in recent years amid rising fears about the environment and unease over how some financial institutions have made money…
14 May 2010
Winning a battle worthy of its eponymous general, PE fund Pershing Square joined partner Brookfield in grabbing General Growth Properties Inc from the jaws of rival…
14 May 2010
IP pours forth from Israel, boosting both M&A and legal activity centered on technology. Companies like CheckPoint, Teva and Vishay are the result. IP creation is driven by its IP-fostering laws…
14 May 2010
Municipal bonds may seem preferable for investors relative to the stock market in down cycles, but as recent developments illustrate, the muni-bond industry is certainly no safe haven from…
14 May 2010
Commercial lending may be back in Canada, but the players wisely remain cautious. Nonetheless, it appears many issuers are using this window of opportunity to lock down credit facilities…
13 May 2010
Ron Burkle wants to buy some books, but Barnes & Noble isn’t proving very accommodating. Burkle’s Yucaipa American Alliance amassed a position in…
13 May 2010
A 1000-point plunge in the Dow and “busted” trades on the NASDAQ and NYSE make it clear – Regulation National Market System (Reg NMS) really matters, as do certain exchange-specific rules…
13 May 2010
From Lehman’s Repo 105 revelations to Goldman Sachs’ ever fluctuating leverage load, it seems bankers can never leave their balance sheets alone. Selling assets is one of the ways banks massage their balance sheets…
13 May 2010
Goldman Sachs continues to raise the bar on legal disclosures. True, the bank has been recently taken to task in the stock market and the courtroom for not disclosing...
13 May 2010
Legal controversies over gambling table licenses and casino expansion are brewing in Macau, amidst rumors that the government is under pressure from Beijing to diversify its economy…
13 May 2010
In a sign that the biotech industry is alive and well in the UK, two venture capital firms are exiting their investment in Excelsyn Limited…
12 May 2010
In 2008, AIG was floundering close to collapse and threatening to take the entire U.S. economy with it. The Federal Reserve stepped in and…
12 May 2010
As Delaware-incorporated Maxlinear, Inc is learning, just because a company is financially ready to IPO doesn’t mean it knows the ropes of SEC compliance. Semiconductor technology company Maxlinear recently…
12 May 2010
While attention is focused on the lingering cracks between the NYSE and new, electronic trading venues, it is notable that the NYSE is looking to eliminate one big governance gap…
12 May 2010
As a constitutional crisis rages over which party will occupy the governing benches of the House of Commons, UK companies are also checking if their own houses are in order…
12 May 2010
Dubai’s free zones are stripped of many of the emirate’s more daunting ownership and licensing requirements, which has helped to foster growth in one of its bedrock industries – shipping and logistics…
12 May 2010
Big four accounting firm KPMG has been dismissed by one of its clients, China Yuchai International Ltd. U.S.-listed China Yuchai is a China-based company that specializes in internal combustion engine products…
11 May 2010
The UK is up for sale and, with precious few defences, it is attracting the amorous attention of its former colonials. Cadbury, Raymarine and Chloride have all found themselves…
11 May 2010
Hong Kong’s stock exchange beckons with an equity market “siren song”, a song that is being heard by a growing number of foreign firms, from Asia and beyond. The debut this week of France’s L’Occitane…
11 May 2010
The notes of “We Like to Party” can be imagined to have played as Six Flags announced its emergence from bankruptcy. In addition to a new corporate name, structure and financing, the company entered into…
10 May 2010
Bankrupt General Growth Properties is the apple of investors’ and rivals’ eyes. The company has now released the agreements for its latest bid…
10 May 2010
A dizzying PE fund ping-pong match has been unfolding between public offerings and going privates, as shown by recent exits by Cerberus and Goldman Sachs affiliates…
10 May 2010
The world economy may have been a bad dream for many, but not for generic pharma giant Teva Pharmaceuticals. In a recent filing, Teva revealed three legally impressive facts...
10 May 2010
Every public issuer struggles at some point with the question of whether and how to disclose anticipated future earnings or similar guidance. Now, the Canadian Securities Administrators has issued a…
10 May 2010
India’s economic expansion has drawn growing foreign investment in its equities from companies across the four seas, except maybe one – the NYSE Euronext…
7 May 2010
BP’s ecological disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and the SEC’s recently issued guidance on climate change bring environmental disclosures and concerns to the fore. Yet in today’s global economy, natural resources are…
7 May 2010
In continuing signs of adjustments to the UK’s capital markets, Pearson plc has agreed to the largest UK leveraged buyout this year…
7 May 2010
Notwithstanding its recent PR troubles, Toyota is still making sales – to wit, Toyota Auto Receivables 2010-A Owner Trust recently filed a $775 million offering of asset backed notes…
7 May 2010
From the leveraged buyout of Dave & Buster’s to a recent Cosi deal, investors’ appetites for restaurant deals seem to be growing. Illinois-based Cosi Inc., a convenience restaurant company, recently announced that it has agreed to sell…
7 May 2010
Of two concepts otherwise seldom joined, Islamic finance is not without a certain… charm. From theory to practice, from abstract to the minute, the system’s characteristics lend themselves to any number of discussions evoking images of…
7 May 2010
Goldman Sachs’s disclosure pendulum appears to have now sharply swung in the other direction. In so doing, Goldman may be charting a new course for itself, and arguably for the broader world of besieged public companies...
7 May 2010
While China and Nigeria are stoking partnership fires with much talked about billion dollar oil deals, the dynamic duo has also been quietly branching out to textile manufacturing…
6 May 2010
Swaps have gotten a bad rap in the midst of crises from Greece to Goldman, largely unearned. Branded as the deceptive divas that dramatically topple once strong edifices, they are actually capital structure enhancers. Even in their more complex forms, like those recently used by…
6 May 2010
Mortgage quality is in the hot seat, thanks to Goldman Sachs…and not only regarding litigation. New deal-doing is also driven by mortgages – and in a near-cinematic stroke of irony, this too is led by Goldman…
6 May 2010
Having proliferated with head-turning abundance, exchanges in the Middle East & North Africa region may be feeling the squeeze of Adam Smith’s invisible hand…
6 May 2010
The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission’s latest hot pursuit may feel like déjà vu, as another one of China’s big 4 banks has been named in allegations of insider trading…
6 May 2010
Government cuts are looming in the UK as dawn breaks on the morning after an uptick of borrowing. We don’t yet know the identity of the fiscal reaper but…
6 May 2010
PPL Corp, a utilities holding company with U.S. and UK holdings, announced last week that it will purchase E.ON U.S. LLC, a U.S.-based subsidiary of German power and gas giant E.ON AG…
5 May 2010
Something quite troubling lies beneath the FDIC’s sale of a troubled Illinois bank. Though not quite Al Capone's body, it’s awash in a shifting tide of deal terms, marked with risky incentives and over-sized loss-sharing…
5 May 2010
Amidst the credit crisis and aftermath, some small caps have had to paddle triply hard to restructure and survive. From the financing double whammy of cut off credit lines and…
5 May 2010
BP’s filings are dripping with disclosures on its Gulf of Mexico oil spill and the contamination is spreading to other companies…
5 May 2010
Secondary offerings are getting a renewed second look, as companies like Dollarama and Brookfield turn back to equity markets, sometimes quite quickly after their prior offering. Many of these offerings offer all of the pain, but little of the gain, to issuers, as these are…
5 May 2010
In the latest reverse merger of a Chinese company into a U.S. shell company in recent months, City Zone Holdings, an emerging agricultural products distributor, plans to tap U.S. venture capital interest in PRC with a.…
5 May 2010
Sustainability reporting has been a hot proxy topic for shareholders of some of the largest tech companies this year, but the proposals are resulting in diverse outcomes…
5 May 2010
Foreign private equity investors and sponsors have increasingly been exploring opportunities to establish an onshore investment platform (so called “RMB funds”) to make direct investments into China. This interest has been fueled by a number of factors…
4 May 2010
Independent directors are increasingly finding themselves in the legal cross-hairs of irate shareholders and the SEC. Recent derivative lawsuits have targeted the directors of companies as diverse as Landry's Restaurants and Boulder Growth & Income Fund…
4 May 2010
When it comes to multi-billion dollar investments, big oil companies are no more immune to cold feet than the rest of us. Published reports of warming relations between ConocoPhillips and the UAE appear to have been premature…
3 May 2010
In the latest in a string of acquisitions, publicly listed U.S.-based First Solar Inc. continues to expand its reach into the western United States, this time by purchasing…
3 May 2010
For most U.S. trained attorneys, it probably doesn’t come as a surprise that even the mere possibility of litigation should be disclosed somewhere in a company’s annual report. But for attorneys preparing an annual report for a foreign filer from a less litigious country…
3 May 2010
While Greek sovereign wealth debt has been declared junk and overheating rumours run through emerging markets, China’s sovereign wealth fund is bucking the trend and planning a bond issue to the tune of 80 billion yuan or US$11.7 billion. Stranger still is…
3 May 2010
Employment prospects in the oil industry are burning brightly at least for one executive, as evidenced by oilfield services provider Schlumberger’s promotion of…
3 May 2010
Alpha ATS, one of several alternative trading systems in Canada, has announced it had applied to the Ontario Securities Commission to become a recognized exchange. If approved, Alpha will join the Toronto Stock Exchange…