LATEST ANALYSIS
September 2010
30 Sep 2010
Westlaw Business Currents Editor-In-Chief Ely Razin speaks to Reuters Insider about Terra Firm lawsuit...
30 Sep 2010
Flip clauses are complicating Lehman Brothers’ Chapter 11 case, are serving as the focal point of a litigation war that could set precedent for other securitization transactions, and are even taking center stage for a pair of conflicting transatlantic legal rulings…
30 Sep 2010
Seeking to ride China’s growing solar power wave, Daqo New Energy Corp, an affiliate of the Daqo Group, recently submitted its registration statement to the SEC…
30 Sep 2010
Legendary American toymaker Mattel has played the refinancing game, offering two new series of notes worth $500 million…
30 Sep 2010
As major studio production companies reduce their output, smaller venture capital-backed companies such are mobilizing to fill that production gap with tax efficient projects…
30 Sep 2010
Bahrain recently promulgated its new corporate governance code, and Dubai has publicly announced its own intention to reform its corporate governance. But a case for similar reforms in neighboring jurisdictions may make for a tough sell…
30 Sep 2010
Carmanah Technologies of Victoria, B.C. announced recently that the company is making an acquisition in Israel. The manufacturer and supplier of solar LED lighting has signed an agreement to…
29 Sep 2010
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is continuing its drive to reform the financial services industry, and securitization practices are one of the key areas…
29 Sep 2010
UK banks nudge back towards subprime securitisations as financial regulations fail to bite in the UK…
29 Sep 2010
In yet another cross-Pacific transaction, one U.S. company is poised to yell “show me the money” in Korean. NASDAQ-listed Net 1 UEPS Technologies…
29 Sep 2010
Investors, regulators, the media – when things go wrong for corporations, everyone starts looking for someone to blame. The Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in Tercon Contractors Ltd. earlier this year has issuers and their counsel revisiting issues of liability, in particular…
29 Sep 2010
Gannett’s had a busy week making news of its own through its debt refinancing. In a private placement, the media empire sold…
28 Sep 2010
If Harvey Pitt heeded his own tenet – "former [Securities and Exchange Commission] chairmen should be seen but not heard" – it would have been a much less valuable session at...
28 Sep 2010
Canadian enterprise Altair Nanotechnologies is heading east. Under its obligations as a NASDAQ-listed entity, Altair Nano recently disclosed to the SEC that…
28 Sep 2010
The hairy, and harrowing, tale of General Growth Properties is actually a study in two strategies: good/bad splits with a big twist, as well as unsecured notes as the financing tool du jour...
28 Sep 2010
Caterpillar, the heavy construction equipment giant, has bulldozed its way to two revolving credit agreements totaling more than $6.8 billion…
27 Sep 2010
Acquirers in today’s M&A market are not holding back when it comes to holdback escrows, one of the many post-closing price adjustment terms drafted into M&A agreements…
27 Sep 2010
In a vote of confidence for onshore UK REITs over off-shore Guernsey vehicles, London & Stamford Property plc, a UK-focused real estate company, has announced its conversion from…
27 Sep 2010
A controversial form of borrowing popular prior to the financial crisis is gaining momentum across Europe once again, as companies seek to leverage capital without jeopardizing credit ratings…
27 Sep 2010
Saskatchewan-based Potash Corp has taken to the courts in its efforts to fend off BHP Billiton’s unsolicited bid. The company’s decision to file a complaint against Billiton in Cook County, Illinois…
27 Sep 2010
Gushing oil and cash, Brazil’s Petrobras has pumped up history’s largest offering still higher...
27 Sep 2010
BMW Auto Leasing LLC is revving up its engine with a $1 billion asset-backed offering. The company is issuing the notes through an issuing entity, BMW Vehicle Lease Trust 2010-1...
24 Sep 2010
Goldman Sachs and its regulators around the world have set a new gold standard for compliance and disclosure in the handling of deals, disclosures and enforcement...
24 Sep 2010
Spirit Airlines is preparing to take off into the world of public companies. The discount airline has recently announced its intention to…
24 Sep 2010
Renowned basketball coach John Wooden is said to have proclaimed "It's what you learn after you know it all that counts." For those who serve on corporate boards, that is sound advice. Even Canadian regulators seem to agree...
24 Sep 2010
New York’s Bayside Capital Partners has agreed to pay $7.5 million to acquire niche insurance company Majestic Capital Ltd...
24 Sep 2010
Following the enactment of new regulations in Hong Kong for exploration companies, mining enterprises looking to feed off China’s resource hunger are assembling their IPO filings…
24 Sep 2010
Javenlin Exchange Traded Trust, the first to offer an American Shariah-compliant Exchange Traded Fund, has pulled up stakes and announced it will fold its Islamic fund tent...
24 Sep 2010
Brazilian mining concern Vale, S.A. has dug up $1.75 billion in new financing…
23 Sep 2010
Middle market buyout specialist Charlesbank Capital Partners is exiting the business of several iconic over-the-counter medicine brands through a portfolio sale to Prestige Brands Holdings…
23 Sep 2010
Morgan Stanley Smith Barney has reorganized its commodity pool operators and renegotiated a management agreement with one of the fund’s advisors...
23 Sep 2010
Hedge funds are being drawn to UCITS like honey. Nearly $100 billion of fund assets are already in these investments, as are U.S. hedgies like York Capital and GLG…
23 Sep 2010
Estee Lauder recently entered into a new employment agreement with Executive Chairman William P. Lauder...
23 Sep 2010
Despite numerous moves by the Chinese government to rain on the real estate parade, property prices in the PRC remain stubbornly high. To the growing frustration of PRC lawmakers…
23 Sep 2010
This summer, Bothwell, WA-based Sonosite, acquired VisualSonics of Toronto for $68 million, net of cash and debt. The company sees the acquisition as an opportunity …
22 Sep 2010
Fiduciary duties are undergoing a big shift, inspired in part by litigation. The Dodd-Frank empowered SEC may soon impose fiduciary duties on…
22 Sep 2010
Looking to relubricate operations after losing hundreds of millions in the BP-Macondo fiasco, Swiss oil & gas well-drilling concern Transocean has floated a new offering of $2 billion in notes...
22 Sep 2010
In a blow to corporate counsel in the UK, the European Court of Justice has left in-house lawyers out in the cold by refusing to extend legal professional privilege (known as attorney-client privilege in the U.S.) to their advice despite the fact…
22 Sep 2010
Swap markets and players were a main focus of Dodd-Frank, yet the SEC and CFTC were left to work out the details...
22 Sep 2010
Riding a wave of Chinese private equity moving onshore, NASDAQ listed CDC Corporation recently announced the formation of a renminbi PE fund…
22 Sep 2010
More than a few boardroom lunches in Canada and Australia of late of have featured vegemite and maple syrup, as M&A between the two countries has been on the upswing. For Canadian issuers…
22 Sep 2010
Brazil’s Gerdau continues its North American acquisition spree. Through its U.S. subsidiary, Gerdau AmeristeelUS, the deal-hungry steel maker will pick up California mini-mill Tamco for $165 million...
21 Sep 2010
Israeli companies are IPOing, and though it may cost more, many small Israeli issuers are still hiring big U.S. firms for their offerings…
21 Sep 2010
Racehorse breeder and trainer Millennia has branched out well beyond horses and into baseball. According to recently filed documents, Millennia has signed several independent teams…
21 Sep 2010
U.S. financial regulators offered warnings for dealers on their sales practice, due diligence and fair pricing obligations when selling...
20 Sep 2010
The SEC watched New Jersey’s dramatic mix of underfunded pensions and under-disclosing documents with rapt attention, the sort more generally associated with spectacles like...
20 Sep 2010
Online social networks have come a long way over the past thirty years. For companies, the upside is enhanced communication with customers. But despite the benefits, the use of social media carries some corporate risk as well…
20 Sep 2010
Finalizing a restructuring that had been in the works for months, Caymans SPAC GSME Acquisition Partners filed a merger agreement with the SEC on September 14 2010…
20 Sep 2010
Telecom services provider Frontier Communications recently dialed up Deutsche bank for a $190 million unsecured letter of credit to satisfy regulators...
19 Sep 2010
Already the Big Dipper of Islamic finance, Malaysia looks to brighten the conventional constellation with two designated offshore securities markets…
17 Sep 2010
There’s always a catch when it comes to the financing conditions of leveraged buyouts. LBOs may be returning, but these deals are bringing some very different terms with them...
17 Sep 2010
When General Motors filed its preliminary IPO prospectus last month, it seemed a logical time for the stakeholders to cash out. After all, the Canadian government seems an unlikely long-term stakeholder for…
17 Sep 2010
Legislative loopholes and weak enforcement have long had IP lawyers fretting about doing business in China. But with ongoing judicial enforcement and new trademark laws in the pipeline, China’s court system is laboring to shed its reputation as an IP black hole…
17 Sep 2010
Nucor Corp. has had a whirlwind week announcing not only amended bylaws, but a $750 million post-Katrina investment…
17 Sep 2010
South East Asian banks are rivaling private institutional investors in bids to support expanding PRC companies…
17 Sep 2010
Embratel, the Brazilian telecom behemoth has issued a tender offer for up to $2.6 billion in shares of Rio-based cable network Net Serviços de Comunicação S.A…
16 Sep 2010
Dell and other blue chips names are tapping the red hot market for high grade corporate debt. These issuers are attracted like moths to the flame of low long-term interest rates and...
16 Sep 2010
Executives – open your mail with trepidation. Hostile takeovers are on the rise and more than a few executives have recently received so-called “bear hug” letters…
16 Sep 2010
Enamored with all things pharmaceutical in China, U.S. PE powerhouses such as Warburg Pincus are stocking up…
16 Sep 2010
Special-purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), or “cash shell” listings as they are sometimes known, are taking off in the UK with Vallar and Horizon both achieving market beating listings so far this year…
16 Sep 2010
Molded plastic products company IPL Inc. is the latest local manufacturer to be stung by the rise in the Canadian dollar. The company has announced that it will be going private…
16 Sep 2010
The past two years have seen massive price movements in commodities such as gold, silver and crude oil. This has focused even more attention on the use of hedges as a means of managing risk…
16 Sep 2010
Private equity firm Apollo is mixing its specialty chemicals and materials investments to concoct a new portfolio company…
15 Sep 2010
A shifting economic order heralds redefining emerging markets; it can also mean a shakeup of electronically traded funds...
15 Sep 2010
Private equity superstar Carlyle Group adds another jewel to its crown with a data center REIT IPO...
15 Sep 2010
American industrial packaging company, Greif, Inc., has bagged an impressive $600 million Saudi JV...
15 Sep 2010
Between bank capital raises and media coverage, the Basel III era may be upon us. After months of anticipation, and more than a little trepidation on the part of banks…
15 Sep 2010
Since the enactment of the PRC’s landmark Anti-Monopoly Law in 2008, movements by China’s anti-monopoly bureau have garnered much attention. Of particular interest have been decisions which order non-Chinese companies to divest offshore assets…
15 Sep 2010
Brazil claims another biomass energy deal with the announcement of a joint venture between that country’s Cosan and petroleum behemoth Shell...
15 Sep 2010
The European Union has today published two draft regulations: on the over-the-counter derivatives markets, and on short selling and credit default swaps...
14 Sep 2010
When it comes to Iran, the SEC is keeping U.S. companies on a short leash…
14 Sep 2010
Riding a roller coaster of executive turnover, Six Flags Entertainment has filed yet another round of executive compensation packages...
14 Sep 2010
REITs have reached for the Note, rather than hand-wringing, as their response to the refinancing cliff that has worried so many. These unsecured note offerings have been showcased by…
14 Sep 2010
With squealing heard over the effects of the Dodd-Frank Act on derivative transactions, some financial institutions are proving that they are going to be quite literally pig headed about the changes…
14 Sep 2010
A recent U.S. filed action offers a rare glimpse of the sometimes tenuous careers of high-profile executives in the Middle East. Filed in the Eastern District of Michigan, the case…
14 Sep 2010
Florida-based Alico has squeezed 8,600 acres of citrus groves into a $100 million loan from Rabo Agrifinance...
13 Sep 2010
The Emirates Securities and Commodities Authority has amended several regulations that govern brokers, including rules on merging brokerage firms and...
13 Sep 2010
Hewlett-Packard and former Chairman and CEO Mark Hurd went their separate ways, so no hard feelings, right? Following the executive’s well-publicized, messy and expensive divorce from the Silicon Valley scion, the two sides will again square off...
13 Sep 2010
The recently announced $4 billion Burger King buyout is not just a whopper, but a whopper with practically everything on it. The hot-off-the-grill deal documents, filed just this week, revealed…
13 Sep 2010
While the bid by Australia’s BHP Billiton to acquire Potash Corp of Saskatchewan has dominated most of the business news headlines, another Canadian agribusiness is looking to gain ground on Billiton’s home turf…
13 Sep 2010
With tough economic times not that far behind, bankers, photographers and collectors are trying to turn their art into cold cash. Perhaps it is no surprise then that efforts to monetize art collections are fueling major auctions, working their way into M&A agreements, and leading to litigation imbroglios…
12 Sep 2010
China’s effort to simplify foreign private equity fund regulation by delegating approval authority to provincial governments is proving to be both a blessing and a curse…
10 Sep 2010
For decades, the municipal, university, and hospital sectors have built and benefitted from district energy systems in Canada. Slowly, the private sector is jumping on board…
10 Sep 2010
Litigation that threatened to pop the bubbles in Coca-Cola’s planned acquisition of North American bottlers has lost its fizz...
10 Sep 2010
Motors Liquidation Co (MLC), the legal warehouse holding “old GM’s” unwanted assets and liabilities, moved one step closer to its inevitable – if not exactly speedy – liquidation...
10 Sep 2010
BP may be the most controversial vendor, but it's far from the only energy company with asset sales in its pipeline. Shell, Apache, Hess Corporation and ConocoPhillips have all done multiple oil deals recently...
10 Sep 2010
Sugar cane has fueled a summer of high profile moves for Amyris, Inc. and its Brazilian “industrial synthetic biology platform”…
9 Sep 2010
Including no fewer than nine mezzanine finance agreements, Harrah’s Entertainment has filed a 3,500-page restructuring document more dizzying than a roulette wheel…
9 Sep 2010
Amid the ongoing spate of PRC green capital raising, the nation’s largest non-state owned wind turbine maker has filed for an IPO in New York…
9 Sep 2010
Student loan financier Sallie Mae is still fighting a tight asset-backed securities market. The student loan giant recently issued $760 million in student loan backed notes…
9 Sep 2010
Online gambling lurks in the murky fringe between legal and illegal in Canada. With British Columbia leading the way, it appears…
8 Sep 2010
Continuing a string of healthcare M&A deals, Healthspring Inc recently announced it has entered into a $545 million merger agreement to acquire all the...
7 Sep 2010
Cancer treatment and its underlying technology just took a noteworthy step forward, via a JV between Accuray, the U.S. radiosurgery company, and Siemens, the German engineering group. The deal is notable...
7 Sep 2010
The designation of Morgan Stanley and China Investment Corp. as bank holding companies is complicating the regulatory approval process for the duo’s investment agreement…
7 Sep 2010
Matching rights are coloring bidding wars and instigating courtroom fights. For proof, look no further than the recent flurry of bids from Dell and Hewlett-Packard and...
6 Sep 2010
While bankruptcies have moved off of the front pages, they are still proceeding. U.S. chemical concern Tronox, Inc., has filed a plan to exit Chapter 11 by the end of November...
6 Sep 2010
Betting big on the Bighorn, Vancouver-based Fronteer Gold has entered a $281 million acquisition of Nevada’s AuEx Ventures, through a hybrid M&A structure much en vogue...
6 Sep 2010
Corporate governance practices in China have caused brows to furrow among China-based businesses, with companies from China National Offshore Oil to China Mobile and…
5 Sep 2010
The U.S. is even more of a global capital market than many realize. Not only do foreign companies list on U.S. exchanges but scratch beneath the surface and even ostensibly American companies may be...
5 Sep 2010
Beverages are being mixed throughout Asia with the recent pickup in beverage M&A in the Asia Pacific region. Most recently, Japan’s Kirin Holdings Company announced that it had acquired liquor company…
3 Sep 2010
With a multi-jurisdictional placing almost as smart as its name, Masawara is hoping that investors will see the potential for growth in Zimbabwe as the southern African country stands poised for political change…
3 Sep 2010
While clawbacks are a top focus for U.S. regulators, Canadian players are taking a decidedly mixed approach...
3 Sep 2010
Dodd-Frank's near disdain for credit ratings agencies has created new confusion, this time around in the money market...
3 Sep 2010
Its economy is predicted to grow by 4 per cent next year, it has one of the lowest deficit forecasts in the EU and bond markets are alive with its issues. No it’s not Germany but…
3 Sep 2010
A pair of financial services companies are banking on the public markets. These companies have extremely different client bases and business models, but the same aspirations...
2 Sep 2010
Dual listings can tie up secondary offerings, especially where disclosures differ between exchanges. U.S. filer Ampal-American Israel Corp. found this to its chagrin…
2 Sep 2010
Dodd-Frank is yanking trust preferred securities out of Tier 1 capital, and some banks are feeling more pain than others. Those that have relied on the magical elixir of TruPS range from…
2 Sep 2010
TransAtlantic Petroleum Ltd. entered into a $30 million credit agreement with Standard Bank PLC to fund a pair of acquisitions. Earlier this summer the aptly named TransAtlantic agreed to...
2 Sep 2010
Land use rights have been on the tip of tongues in China lately as business owners take care to avoid ending up like BYD. The Buffet-backed auto maker is currently under investigation…
2 Sep 2010
The shaky global economy has elevated dividend-paying stocks from dowdy has-beens to stalwart soldiers. Yet the legal issues associated with dividends can prove a tangled web…
1 Sep 2010
In March 2009, Kinross Gold helped Harry Winston Diamond Corp bolster its balance sheet, by investing $150 million in the company. But less than a year and a half later that deal has been dismantled…
1 Sep 2010
Leading automated retail solution provider Coinstar, Inc is looking forward to counting the coins from the $41.5 million sale of its money transfer business...
1 Sep 2010
Proxy access is here, and corporations will soon need to make more room on their ballots. And as the icing on the proxy access cake, the new rules will be here in just sixty short days…
1 Sep 2010
Unfazed by the summer heat in the northern hemisphere, the global energy M&A binge is gaining momentum. Asia-Pacific companies in particular have demonstrated an ongoing appetite for assets outside Asia…
1 Sep 2010
American industrial giant 3M has proposed a billion-dollar acquisition of biometric identification solutions provider Cogent, Inc…