LATEST ANALYSIS
August 2010
31 Aug 2010
In Anwar v. Fairfield Greenwich Limited, 1:09-cv-00118 (VM) (THK), Judge Victor Marrero of the Southern District of New York adopted a novel view of the effect of...
31 Aug 2010
A string of healthcare acquisitions by Kindred Healthcare shows that healthcare M&A is expanding beyond the bounds of the pharmaceutical industry…finally...
31 Aug 2010
There seems to be a real-life Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robot battle unfolding within the real estate industry, amid the foreclosure proceedings of Tishman Speyer’s failed Stuy-town project...
30 Aug 2010
As the world’s derivatives markets race to take over global competitors, the potential impact of Dodd-Frank looms large...
30 Aug 2010
Commercial real estate seems to be in a state of flux, with some companies abandoning properties and others clamoring to go public. Amid the mixed messages, ECM Realty Trust is planning a $380 million IPO...
30 Aug 2010
Express Scripts, a leading U.S. pharmacy benefits management company, has benefitted from a shiny new $750 million credit facility of its own...
30 Aug 2010
The China Banking Regulatory Commission’s stern words to banks recently, intended to crack down on off-balance sheet loans, may be falling on half open ears. While the CBRC is empowered to…
30 Aug 2010
In a deal which spans from Kuala Lumpur to London and treads the complexities of a part Malaysian, part UK share offer, Tanjong Capital, a special purpose vehicle, has made a conditional takeover offer for…
27 Aug 2010
Going-private might seem like a life of luxury for a company, allowing it to leave behind worries surrounding public share prices or reporting requirements. But getting there can be a hair-raising legal journey…
27 Aug 2010
It seems another regulatory hiccup has burst from the pages of the Dodd-Frank Act. This time the snafu involves the mining sector, a place where accidents can lead to disaster…
27 Aug 2010
Strategic concerns for companies planning IPOs might have taken an unexpected twist recently, with the technological capacity of trading exchanges now driving (and preventing) some IPO activity...
27 Aug 2010
Rumoured to be gunning for a large chunk of American utility company InterGen, China’s leading electricity producer appears to be…
27 Aug 2010
With Canada’s uranium mines accounting for over 20% of world’s total, even the global JV involving a small Canadian uranium exploration company garners attention…
27 Aug 2010
Water treatment systems company Sionix Corp recently settled approximately $520,000 in claims with distressed investor Ascendiant Capital Group...
26 Aug 2010
Tucked away in the pages of the recently enacted Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act are whistleblower provisions that breathe new life into a once ineffective SEC...
26 Aug 2010
Leveraged buyouts may be back, but not without a push from some unusual deal terms and structures…
26 Aug 2010
With fears growing that the U.S. bond market may be developing into a financial bubble, HSBC has filed a note and warrant programme that may allow even non-U.S. citizens to participate…
26 Aug 2010
While it still beats coach, more corporate CEOs are being required to pay for their personal use of corporate jets...
26 Aug 2010
Despite bearing witness to mounting troubles associated with European debt woes, Japan has been pumping stacks of government bonds into the market, which have been slurped up by institutional investors and foreign governments...
26 Aug 2010
Clothing retailer and mall stand-by the Dress Barn, Inc. is being displaced by its own subsidiary in an unorthodox reorganization…
26 Aug 2010
Though Canadian companies are no stranger to the world of alternative dispute resolution, and arbitration in particular, views continue to vary as to…
26 Aug 2010
A recent distribution MOU involving a Turkish software developer stretches “globalization” to its limits…
25 Aug 2010
There is a new mega-VC in town, and the U.S. government is its name. Companies from Tesla Motors to Solyndra to Hoku Corporation have been among the prime beneficiaries…
25 Aug 2010
In a year of firsts for credit ratings agencies, including Dodd-Frank’s imposition of expert liability and a bevy of innovative lawsuits, Moody’s has entered the debt market with...
25 Aug 2010
In a sea of outbound investment activity among Chinese companies, the business goals and IPO of one company in particular is turning heads. Lizhan Environmental Corporation is preparing to…
25 Aug 2010
M&A financing remains in short supply around the world, and with the financial cupboard bare, UK companies are looking to an older form of trade to do business – trading assets instead of money…
25 Aug 2010
A key part of Goldcorp’s sale of its San Dimas mine in Mexico to Primero Mining earlier this month was the assignment and amendment of a supply agreement…
24 Aug 2010
In the highest-tech of spy-tech/security mergers, FLIR Systems has announced an all-cash tender for shares of ICx Technologies…
24 Aug 2010
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has begun an over-arching review of disclosure obligations for the country's banks, which it said would reduce the...
24 Aug 2010
The Dodd-Frank Act will require investment advisers to adhere to new standards, including eligibility for investing in certain products...
24 Aug 2010
Dodd-Frank has struck again. First, changes to credit ratings agency liability standards agitated the debt markets, and now swaps are the target. In a recent call for public comment, the SEC and CFTC have requested…
24 Aug 2010
For some public companies, the looming specter of Iranian sanctions policy lends an understandable nervousness to otherwise routine filings...
24 Aug 2010
Now that Google is back in China, the search engine may find things have slightly changed in its absence. In particular, some of its competitors have packed on some M&A weight…
23 Aug 2010
It’s considered crass to leave price tags on items, yet some deals are hanging price tags right on their collars. Deals may be picking up again but...
23 Aug 2010
Amidst Dodd-Frank’s move to rein in proprietary investment by banks, at least one group at Goldman Sachs has found its business humming…
23 Aug 2010
With Canadian securities regulators seemingly sitting on opposite sides of the fence regarding the use of shareholder rights plans, new pills have been introduced by several high-profile Canadian public issuers…
23 Aug 2010
Tiny Mauritius has proudly entered the big time with its first ever listing on a major New York exchange. MakeMyTrip, Ltd., an India-based internet travel agency has splashed onto the NASDAQ Global Markets Exchange…
23 Aug 2010
The EU has used its full arsenal of powers to clamp down on the telecommunications sector, as it sees national governments helpless in the face of international telecommunication profiteering…
23 Aug 2010
Frantic activity in the pharmaceutical industry shows no sign of slowing, with two additional pharma deals announced this week…
20 Aug 2010
Healthcare deals appear to be built on strong real estate, but it may turn out to be on surprisingly thin ice, given the heat of regulation. Recent deals by…
20 Aug 2010
While others seem intent on mass-producing electric cars, a new trans-Atlantic JV is taking a different direction. U.S.-based Electric Car Company Inc., a...
20 Aug 2010
Earlier this week, Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan announced it is being pursued by BHP Billiton. The $38.6 billion deal represents the potential loss of another major Canadian resource company...
20 Aug 2010
Money flowing out of China in the form of outbound investment has been popping up in record amounts in the form of international listings, overseas acquisitions and…
20 Aug 2010
The pharma industry must be taking activity-boosting drugs, to judge from the quickened deal pace over the last week. The spate of recent deals includes two mergers, a PIPE, a private placement, and an IPO...
20 Aug 2010
Qatar’s $3.5 billion conventional bond issue may be the season’s most noteworthy Islamic finance deal…
19 Aug 2010
The Hong Kong Government has recently released the conclusions to its public consultations on a corporate rescue scheme. A statutory regime to facilitate corporate restructurings for...
19 Aug 2010
Duoyuan Global Water, China’s leading water treatment equipment supplier, has fared well through the nation’s flood season. Guo Wenhua, the company’s CEO, recently announced the results of its second fiscal quarter on August 18 2010…
19 Aug 2010
Companies don’t just restructure when the going gets tough but also when the going gets really good, as evidenced by Parallel Media Group’s recent announcement of its capital reorganisation…
19 Aug 2010
In boomtown Macau, Melco Crown Entertainment has been busy tending to securities housekeeping. The casino operator, which has also branched into…
19 Aug 2010
Coal, the ugly duckling of energy, is maintaining its appeal in India despite a growing movement in the alternative energy sector in other countries…
19 Aug 2010
While Canada is a long, long way from matching the U.S. when it comes to securities class action claims, 2010 is proving to be a pivotal year in the development of such litigation...
19 Aug 2010
An FDA grant of “orphan drug” status could help bring an experimental cancer drug to market for Israel’s BioCancell Therapeutics…
18 Aug 2010
The corporate veil is proving to be thin armor, as the SEC and shareholders are taking corporate transgressions quite personally. Both groups are fighting back via…
18 Aug 2010
Despite stock market volatility, equity markets are opening up for IPOs, and companies from GM to Hulu and Kinder Morgan to BankUnited are reportedly planning offerings...
18 Aug 2010
A $25 million sideline acquisition has gushed into a $750 million merger between Nabors Industries and Superior Wells Services…
18 Aug 2010
The SEC is continuing its regulatory makeover of the municipal bond or “muni” market. The Commission has approved...
18 Aug 2010
After announcing its intention to acquire private label juice manufacturer Cliffstar Corporation for $500 million, the next step for Cott Corporation…
18 Aug 2010
Beware those companies with a new twist on a familiar product in the UK; you may be inadvertently breaching the…
18 Aug 2010
A recent niche finance IPO could be a shot in the arm for the plaintiffs’ bar. Imperial Holdings, Inc. (“Imperial”), a specialty finance company founded in...
18 Aug 2010
State banking regulators are preparing to introduce new standards and propose changes to their laws and rules even before federal prudential regulators begin the...
17 Aug 2010
Credit rating agencies now face their latest threat, with regulators seeking to reduce their reliance on ratings, and through a surprisingly coordinated effort, at that…
17 Aug 2010
After bankruptcy, reorganization, and a name change, the former Tropicana Entertainment Holdings’ initial registration statement drew the attention of…
17 Aug 2010
The BlackBerry controversy has exposed an internet trap for unwary companies and lawyers alike. Governmental threats to giants like Google, Yahoo and RIM impact…
16 Aug 2010
The contract is inked, the funds are dispersed, and the deal closed – now who is bearing the post-closing risks? The importance of this risk-allocation has grown, thanks to...
16 Aug 2010
While the world idles away the dog days of summer, DirecTV has had a busy August, wheeling and dealing as it buys back shares and issues billions in new debt...
16 Aug 2010
Despite the PRC State Council’s reaffirmation of its continued support for foreign direct investment, the terms of a recent FCPA settlement between the SEC and General Electric has some U.S. investors pausing to cross their legal Ts and dot their due diligence Is…
16 Aug 2010
Mini tenders are the black sheep in the world of M&A, and perhaps deservedly so. After all, the CSA has…
16 Aug 2010
A happy ending was sealed last week for another SPAC that had been scouring the PRC for a suitable acquisition target. GSME Acquisition Partner I, a Cayman…
16 Aug 2010
With wheat prices soaring, so too is wheat price speculation, as illustrated by SGA Société Générale Acceptance N.V., a special purpose vehicle…
15 Aug 2010
Kuveyt Turk’s summer sukuk, with its key navigation points plotted along a Kuwait-Turkey-England-Caymans crescent, seems a fitting offering for the Ramadan season…
13 Aug 2010
When BP announced last month that it intends to divest up to $30 billion of assets over the next 18 months, a naïve few may have assumed this was an opportunity to take advantage of the reeling giant…
13 Aug 2010
EU competition issues can slow down many an EU merger but with companies sweet talking the European Competition Commission into accepting their own divestiture plans even mega-takeover deals are getting an EU seal of approval…
13 Aug 2010
The breadth of one deal device has quietly grown in quite breathtaking ways, shaping deals from the Dollar Thrifty merger to Marcellus Shale Gas transactions to REIT acquisitions...
13 Aug 2010
Luigi Lavazza, the Italian coffee company, has agreed to purchase $250 million worth of shares in Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc as it paves the way for its U.S. expansion…
13 Aug 2010
Israel’s D.Medical, an as-yet-unprofitable insulin therapy company, has called in some high-end legal talent to help launch its American IPO...
12 Aug 2010
On March 1, 2010, after many months of work, ISDA and IIFM jointly issued the first Shari'ah-compliant master agreement for OTC derivatives...
12 Aug 2010
A sea of change is engulfing General Motors Co., as CEO Ed Whitacre just announced that he will resign and hand over the reins of…
12 Aug 2010
Liberty Media Corp. has turned to the courts to grease the skids for a proposed “split−off.” Liberty, a multi-faceted conglomerate with more than $16 billion in assets, has filed…
12 Aug 2010
Magnachip Semiconductor, a Delaware technology maker may be readying its forces to IPO in the United States, after a withdrawn attempt earlier this year. Fresh from Chapter 11 restructuring…
12 Aug 2010
Pity the Special Committee – they’re called into being amidst high pressure transactions, like the restructurings of Magna or Canwest, yet are given precious little direction…
12 Aug 2010
Public to private takeovers have burst back into life in the UK, and with a Canadian-driven deal no less. Pinafore Acquisitions Limited, a company formed at the direction of…
11 Aug 2010
Solvency opinions are on the tip of many a tongue, thanks to the Tribune Co. and its just released bankruptcy examiner’s report. With leveraged transactions beginning to revive…
11 Aug 2010
BP may be suffering a contract blowout from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The oil giant’s contractual arrangements broadly indemnify the owner of the Deepwater Horizon –Transocean Ltd – for liabilities related to…
11 Aug 2010
Canada’s TD Bank Financial Group is breaking up Mercantile Bank as part of its acquisition of South Financial Group. Mercantile Bank is a division of Carolina First Bank...
11 Aug 2010
The world's newest energy player, Israel, has burst onto the world stage leveraging both clean tech brains and hydrocarbon brawn. Houston's Noble Energy and Ormat Technologies of Nevada, meanwhile...
11 Aug 2010
Two of the world’s ten largest uranium miners – Vancouver’s Uranium One and state-controlled mining company JSC Atomredmetzoloto of Russia – are joining forces, in a…
11 Aug 2010
FSA enforcement efforts have uncovered the sale of ridiculously complex financial products sold to unsuitable consumers, a morbid mis-selling of life insurance pools that…
10 Aug 2010
China’s insurance market is one part huge opportunity and two parts legal maelstrom. As global insurers like Prudential Plc know, China is starved for vital business protection products…
10 Aug 2010
All the talk of a wind energy-filled future may appear to be little more than hot air, with key legislation diminished and then delayed. But private innovators like Google have stepped in where the government fears to tread…
10 Aug 2010
The airline business took another step towards consolidation, with the merger of ExpressJet Holdings and Skywest Inc. The deal, a $133 million all-cash merger…
9 Aug 2010
Golden shares may once have been a prerequisite of privatisations in Europe, but they appear to be fool’s gold now, as seen by Portugal Telecom’s recent clash with the European Union…
9 Aug 2010
In a deal which illustrates the complicated interplay in global transactions of currency, tax and regional concerns, one of the largest oil companies in the world, Total SA recently announced...
9 Aug 2010
Even as Dodd-Frank is supposed to be ushering banks out of risky businesses, a bank in the heartland of America might be racing into the business. …
8 Aug 2010
Reports of a sukuk demise may be premature as two sizeable offerings this summer from Malaysia and Abu Dhabi attest…
6 Aug 2010
The Supreme Court’s ruling in Morrison v. National Australia Bank recently rendered an entire category of securities class actions, those known as “F-cubed”, extinct...
6 Aug 2010
Tender offers can lead to firm terms on private equity deals, and have become an increasingly common deal structure...
6 Aug 2010
The delisting of Hutchison Telecommunications, which has been in the works since early 2010, recently drew attention from New York securities regulators, who honed in on…
6 Aug 2010
Bangalore-incorporated Biocon, an emerging pharmaceutical leader in India, has entered into a rarely seen English law manufacturing and supply agreement with…
6 Aug 2010
Despite all the fuss over Dodd-Frank, U.S. regulators are not the only ones cracking down on the financial services industry. In Canada, the credit rating business is now in the direct line of sight of regulators...
6 Aug 2010
Canada’s biggest lender is making major inroads into American equity markets. Though good news for the Royal Bank of Canada and its dealer affiliates, RBC’s success has also proven a headache...
5 Aug 2010
The “swaps push-out” requirement in Dodd-Frank could have a material impact on the way in which banking institutions structure their U.S. derivatives operations. Yet this is not the last word on derivatives regulation, as the legislation explicitly delegates to the SEC and CFTC broad rulemaking authority over derivatives…
5 Aug 2010
In a double dose of private equity, both Citadel and Cerberus play roles in the "going private transaction" centered on construction material player, Bluelinx Holdings Inc...
5 Aug 2010
UK regulators are coming down hard on unscrupulous directors of insolvent companies in England and Wales, using the full remit of their powers to disqualify more…
5 Aug 2010
Turning to a Starbucks-like model of expansion, one pharmaceutical company seems to be adopting the mantra of “more factories are better than one” in an effort to stake out its position…
5 Aug 2010
Public companies, whether acting as landlords or tenants, are dreading a rule-driven earthquake, rumbling amidst the property beneath their very feet...
5 Aug 2010
In one of the world’s most ambitious diversification programs, the United Arab Emirates has staked out the most high tech of them all: aerospace…
4 Aug 2010
The Central Bank of Bahrain has issued a second consultation paper proposing extensive changes to its liquidity risk management regulations for conventional banks...
4 Aug 2010
The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission's recent update on the deterioration of standards in listing applications has led some in the industry to call for...
4 Aug 2010
Recent litigation swirling around IP ownership and employment agreements is putting the “con” in contract. From the Facebook ownership dispute to MGA and Mattel’s Bratz litigation, high stakes litigation battles are unfolding…
4 Aug 2010
Ironically, SEC transparency, and FOIA that enables it, are taking a big step back, thanks to a little noticed section of the recently passed Dodd-Frank Act…
4 Aug 2010
The flavor of the month in Canadian M&A may be a deal structure that has appeared in recent transactions involving companies such as…
4 Aug 2010
The EU’s sweeping sanctions against Iran have left some western companies in the lurch, but business with Iran still appears to be largely unchanged throughout the Asia Pacific region…
4 Aug 2010
WS Atkins, the UK construction and engineering group, has reinforced its plans of expanding into the U.S. with a cash acquisition of…
4 Aug 2010
Channeling the ghost of Joseph Heller, Israel’s Bezeq announced this week a special tender offer for 5% of the shares of Walla! Communications, Ltd., the ebay of Israel…
3 Aug 2010
Mauritius has proven itself a jewel in the hands of clever lawyers looking to do deals from rapidly developing India to the Islamic Gulf. With its mix of friendly corporate and…
3 Aug 2010
While the question of pretzels or crackers is a matter of taste, the combination of snack cracker maker Lance Inc. and iconic pretzel maker Snyder’s of Hanover is being billed as a merger of “equals”…
2 Aug 2010
The FSA’s enforcement abilities just took a big step forward, having received judicial confirmation of the widest possible remit in its prosecution powers…
2 Aug 2010
Avenue New Jersey Entertainment, an affiliate of hedge fund Avenue Capital, was recently dealt 21 in the reorganization plan of busted gaming company Trump Entertainment Resorts...
2 Aug 2010
IP dramas worthy of Hollywood show U.S. courts to have assumed a central role on China's integration into world markets and exchanges. While alleged IP infringement isn't news, handling them in the U.S. is, and is fraught with risk...
2 Aug 2010
China Ceramics, a producer of building tiles, is taking steps to protect itself against unannounced takeovers through a three-step buyback of some of its shares issued …
2 Aug 2010
The tangled tentacles of securitizations-past continue to expose municipal finances to increased risk – as if they didn’t have enough to worry about. States have become oddly dependent on…
2 Aug 2010
The federal government has laid down its cards in the battle for supremacy over Canadian securities legislation. With the release of a proposed transition plan earlier…