LATEST ANALYSIS
January 2011
31 Jan 2011
The dramatic evolution of 2010’s energy sector disclosures shows just what a difference a year- or even a single event- can have on disclosure trends...
31 Jan 2011
Real estate, cooking oil…and price tags. China’s fight against asset inflation has spilled into anti-monopoly territory. To prevent monopolistic pricing practices from further…
31 Jan 2011
Just when it appeared lending conditions had stabilized for Canada’s public issuers, the Supreme Court of Canada may have thrown a monkey wrench into the works...
31 Jan 2011
Wizzard Software has summoned up approximately $4 million net in private investment money with the help of Chardan Capital Markets acting as the placement agent...
31 Jan 2011
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released revised Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) thresholds for transactions which include acquisitions and mergers...
28 Jan 2011
As the global demand for steel continues to grow, driven by infrastructure build-outs in China, India and Brazil…
28 Jan 2011
Seaspan Corporation recently announced the pricing of its US$250 million public offering of preferred shares. Based in Hong Kong, the company maintains a listing on the New York Stock Exchange...
28 Jan 2011
From cage-free eggs to childhood obesity, McDonald’s Associate General Counsel Denise Home has her hands full taking orders for proxy resolutions…
28 Jan 2011
There has been a striking shift in global trade patterns with telecommunications, commodity and energy deals driving new international transactions. With this shift, the legal sector has been realigning itself to match the shift in work patterns…
28 Jan 2011
San Antonio’s Tesoro Corp. plans to settle its executive severance and succession issues before events dictate…
27 Jan 2011
As lawsuits pile up against major Wall Street banks that sold toxic mortgage-backed securities, a battle has broken out over where those cases should be heard...
27 Jan 2011
Bank of America says “back off,” as it seeks SEC guidance on excluding proxy proposals...
27 Jan 2011
SAP Investments Limited recently added classroom activities to its international portfolio. Earlier this month, the group entered into a loan agreement…
27 Jan 2011
The Bank of the Ozarks may be a big winner as the FDIC looks to liquidate its inventory of banks in receivership...
27 Jan 2011
With AGM season just around the corner in the UK, attention is once again turning to corporate governance issues and in particular, board composition…
27 Jan 2011
Canada has seen a surge in wealth management M&A of late, a result of increased competition, escalating costs to maintain pace with technology and…
27 Jan 2011
When 2010 first rolled in, many a prognosticator warned that the retail asset class would be the red-headed stepchild of real estate, due to…
26 Jan 2011
Bankrupt financial company Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc proposed a new plan for dividing up billions of dollars among its creditors and offered a bigger payment to bondholders...
26 Jan 2011
A key lawmaker vowed to introduce bi-partisan legislation aimed at strengthening offshore drilling regulations to prevent a repeat of last year's massive BP oil spill...
26 Jan 2011
General Nutrition Centers (GNC), an American fitness fixture, looks to pump up with an IPO…
26 Jan 2011
The majority rules, but not always in corporate America. Majority voting for the election of directors is shaping up to be one of the 2011 proxy season’s top governance issues...
26 Jan 2011
January has seen a frenzy of spinoffs by blue chip behemoths including Cargill, ITT, Northrop Grumman, Motorola and Marathon Oil…
26 Jan 2011
Shiny silver linings are dotting the horizon for foreign and domestic private equity investors in China…
26 Jan 2011
Petrobras will soon lubricate its burgeoning development engine with $6 billion in global notes…
26 Jan 2011
PAA Natural Gas Storage L.P. will fund its acquisition of SG Resources Mississippi with a $600 million equity injection...
25 Jan 2011
The Canadian federal government’s decision to tax income trusts as corporations resulted in a flurry of income trust conversions at the beginning of the year…
25 Jan 2011
“Keep your hands off our deal!” seems to be the mantra of recent merger agreements. Earlier this year, in the face of shareholder opposition…
24 Jan 2011
Goldman Sachs Group Inc's decision to scale back a heavily publicized sale of shares in social network site Facebook shows how the bank risks losing its edge as financial regulation intensifies...
24 Jan 2011
India’s Tata Communications has kicked off the year with a number of outbound M&A deals. The telecom arm of Indian multinational conglomerate, the Tata Group…
24 Jan 2011
Franchising has always been a maligned business, evoking images of the heavy-handed ruler (the franchisor) and his many serfs (the franchisees). As the standard bearer for global retailing, the franchising industry has…
21 Jan 2011
Striving to unify business law throughout the EU and simplify the process of mergers and reorganisations of public companies in the UK, the Department for Business Innovation & Skills has set out new draft regulations…
21 Jan 2011
Canadian miners are desperately seeking dance partners, apparently loathe to be left standing alone when the last ballad begins. With consolidation in the industry continuing at a furious pace…
21 Jan 2011
Excessive liquidity is becoming a hot potato for the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, China’s forex regulator. Recently, SAFE announced that it would…
20 Jan 2011
Radical changes to Europe’s system of financial regulation are under way and with them a harmonisation of securities rules but not all European regulators are striking the same note…
20 Jan 2011
The advent of proxy season drives home how much Dodd-Frank’s Wall Street reform will impact corporate counsel. Although many of the Act’s measures, such as derivatives and banking regulations have thus far driven much of the discussion...
20 Jan 2011
Google’s growth is creating a dangerous journey for Kayak, the IPO’ing online travel site. Google is featured prominently in Kayak’s risk factors and Kayak has...
19 Jan 2011
News that CEO Steve Jobs will take another medical leave of absence may have rocked Apple’s investors to their cores, but should the market be surprised? Recent public disclosures, suggest that...
19 Jan 2011
The prognosis looks good for WebMD as the net-based self-help site has placed $400 million in convertible notes due 2018…
19 Jan 2011
NASDAQ Dubai has proposed new listing rules that include significant changes to its regulatory framework and content. In a consultation paper issued for public comment...
19 Jan 2011
The big business of independent medical examinations gets a little bigger with ExamWorks’ acquisition of the MES Group…
18 Jan 2011
Clothing retailer J Crew Group Inc is set to settle a shareholder lawsuit over its proposed takeover by private equity firms TPG Capital and Leonard Green & Partners LP...
18 Jan 2011
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board requested comment Friday on a draft for establishing "pay to play" and related rules applicable to municipal advisors, as mandated by...
18 Jan 2011
2010 was packed with disclosure-worthy events, from healthcare reform to an environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico...
18 Jan 2011
In a shocking condemnation of corporate governance standards, the UK’s Financial Reporting Council has indentified that half to two thirds of British companies examined fall short of…
18 Jan 2011
The SEC will lighten Dodd-Frank’s reporting burdens for thousands of issuers of asset-backed securities...
18 Jan 2011
Regulators of the Hong Kong’s bourse have embarked on a mission to make over the city’s policies on corporate governance. Citing the still-felt effects of…
17 Jan 2011
In hopes of picking up a cool $70 million, Comverse Technology will sell off 2 million shares of Verint Systems…
17 Jan 2011
PetroChina, the PRC’s leading oil and gas producer, has started the year off with a westward foray. The Chinese company recently disclosed...
17 Jan 2011
After barely enough time to put away the Christmas decorations, the new year has sprung into life with a flurry of M&A activity on both sides of the Atlantic that promises to…
17 Jan 2011
Canada’s public companies have a reputation for being somewhat cautious about the adoption of new technologies, whether it be e-commerce, social media, or the latest media darling – cloud computing...
14 Jan 2011
Recently published correspondence shows the SEC is keeping a sharp eye out as to who is on the hook for environmental cleanup…
14 Jan 2011
As the demand for precious metals drives exploration and development efforts in Canada and abroad, companies are finding that lenders are interested not only in repayment, but also…
14 Jan 2011
Announcing an exclusive channel partnership, Ziopharm Oncology and Intrexon Corp. have raised the stakes in the fight against cancer…
13 Jan 2011
Dodd-Frank, the most sweeping securities reform in over 75 years, rocketed from a Congressional ballista in the summer of 2010…
13 Jan 2011
Tobacco Road’s megawatt power brokers, Duke Energy and Progress Energy, will merge to create America’s largest utility…
13 Jan 2011
Boom or doom? Concern over rising property prices continues to spur action from China’s government. Despite enacting multiple economic and legal…
13 Jan 2011
Like a number of other income trusts, Morneau Sobeco Income Fund – Canada's largest HR consulting and outsourcing firm – kicked off the New Year by converting into a corporation, a process which also involved updating certain agreements…
13 Jan 2011
In what may be a biotech harbinger for 2011, Israel’s Protalix Biotherapeutics will offer $150 million in stock under an existing shelf prospectus…
12 Jan 2011
The credit crisis and ensuing recession set the tone for much of the corporate governance activity in 2010. Stymied growth and depressed equities prices set the stage for hostile takeovers and...
12 Jan 2011
Tiptoeing through a compensation minefield, Goldman has adopted a new long-term performance incentive plan...
12 Jan 2011
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has published proposals to beef up banking capital requirements in the UK, encourage an innovative new form of capital offering, and ease the liquidity timetable for Basel III compliance…
12 Jan 2011
Pessimistic readers, clear your eyes and focus on the prospect of a completed commercial mortgage brokerage IPO. Yes, a brokerage company which lives and dies on transaction volume went public in December, a phenomenon...
12 Jan 2011
A recent addition to the NYSE, e-commerce company China Dangdang has received a large show of affection from mutual fund giant Fidelity…
12 Jan 2011
As M&A activity continues to recover in Canada, one thing seems clear – despite the country’s reputation for being a buyer-friendly jurisdiction, Canadian companies are fighting back…
12 Jan 2011
A recent New Jersey-based offering represents nothing less than the triumph of capitalism over...
11 Jan 2011
Touting drug-like qualities but with drug-lite regulation, the supplements sector is beefing up global M&A activity as Martek Biosciences, Maximuscle, Santa Cruz Nutritionals and Seroyal International attract beefcake bids from private equity and industry alike…
11 Jan 2011
DG Internal Market and Services has published a working document that seeks views on the technical details of a possible European Union framework for the management of...
11 Jan 2011
As Malaysia has continued its efforts to liberalise the domestic capital markets in the past year, major structural reforms accompanied by regulatory changes have been taking place at breakneck speed...
11 Jan 2011
Whistleblower provisions in Dodd-Frank may have handed hedge funds a golden opportunity and the SEC a unique challenge, though the law remains unclear. Funds have long conducted unique analyses that prompt quite public “revelations” of possible funny business...
11 Jan 2011
Rev. Seamus P. Finn, of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, is calling on Goldman Sachs to confess (read: disclose) its risk management system...
10 Jan 2011
Credit terms are loosening, but lenders are still after their proverbial pound of flesh, weighing risks in order to concoct the right mix of interest rate terms in hopes of protecting their capital going forward...
10 Jan 2011
Though Canada has thus far avoided the worst of the economic crisis, a recent Staff Notice issued by the Ontario Securities Commission serves as a reminder that the fortunes of individual businesses have varied…
10 Jan 2011
The rising price of edible oil in China has driven one provider to look outwards for much needed expansion capital. Eager to expand its oil-pumping capabilities…
7 Jan 2011
An enforcement action brought by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation against SunFirst Bank, of Utah, has provided a stark reminder of the legal and regulatory obligations...
7 Jan 2011
Sino-U.S. reverse mergers, which heated up U.S. exchanges in 2009, are back in the spotlight as the subjects of a nation-wide SEC investigation…
7 Jan 2011
While the world’s economies try to rebuild, energy companies simply reload. From takeovers to working capital, acquisition finance to the all-encompassing “corporate purposes,” energy companies are doing their part to keep investment dollars flowing…
7 Jan 2011
Canada’s financial services sector is about more than just the big five banks, as evidenced by a deal recently announced by Quebec-based Desjardins Financial Group. On December 23, Desjardins announced…
6 Jan 2011
The recent flurry of insider-trading arrests by the Manhattan U.S. Attorney has set Wall Street on edge. But if recent history is any guide, people found guilty of that crime tend to...
6 Jan 2011
In a rare glimpse into a takeover by a UK-listed company, seen via recently released SEC staff comments, new information has come out regarding...
5 Jan 2011
Facebook has accepted Goldman Sachs’ friend request and the bank is leading a $500 million investment into the white-hot social network...
5 Jan 2011
Fixed-income markets received a stimulus in 2009 with Build America Bonds. A questionable new animal, the taxable municipal bond was thrown into the investment market and was warmly received by…
4 Jan 2011
Policymakers and regulators around the world put in a lot of work in 2010 designing post-crisis regulations. But there are still plenty of question marks over implementation...
4 Jan 2011
2011 might look like a calm year in the financial services industry but underneath the surface firms should be "paddling away" to prepare for the storm that will be 2012...
4 Jan 2011
For troubled companies, the typical prescription to achieve improved health involves cost cutting and asset sales. But not all asset sales look alike, as auto insurer Kingsway Financial is demonstrating…
4 Jan 2011
The Supreme Court of England and Wales has made a landmark decision that may change the face of media law in the UK, allowing companies and individuals alike to use a defence of “honest comment” in defamation proceedings…
3 Jan 2011
Capital markets in 2010 may presage what to expect in 2011. This past year witnessed capital markets around the world emerge from the aftermath of the financial crisis…
3 Jan 2011
Singapore’s Agria Corporation struck out on Christmas Eve, filing a partial takeover notice for New Zealand’s PGG Wrightson…