Issues

Highlights: Fed Chairman Bernanke argued that the U.S. Federal Reserve’s accommodative monetary policy not only helps the U.S. economic recovery, but also helps support the global economy, including emerging economies.  The speech sought to counter arguments that the Fed’s monetary policy encourages excess capital flows into emerging market economies, which some have argued causes undesirable … Continued

Executive Summary/Highlights: Global M&A volume in Q3 was US$538 billion, down 13% compared to Q2 2012, but the cross-border component remained strong and is on pace to match 2011annual volumes. Despite companies’ substantial cash stockpiles and the availability of cheap debt, M&A activity stagnated somewhat in Q3.  Some companies appear to have taken a wait-and-see … Continued

Highlights: This paper attempts to explain the tendency of foreign acquirers to choose better performing firms in emerging markets, which limits underperforming firms’ access to foreign capital. Using a simple law and finance model, the authors offer an explanation based on emerging countries’ weaker investor protection compared to acquirers’ home countries, predicting a positive relation … Continued

Highlights:  Recently, the Competition Commission of India (“CCI”) has been imposing significant penalties in the range of 5% to 10% of the turnover of enterprises violating India’s Competition Act, 2002.  In one cartel case, CCI imposed a penalty equivalent to 50% of the profits made by the concerned enterprises. CCI’s increasing penchant for imposing significant … Continued

Executive Summary: The Global Capital Confidence Barometer is a regular survey of senior executives from large companies around the world, conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) of Ernst & Young. This snapshot of findings gauges corporate confidence in the economic outlook, and identifies boardroom trends and practices in the way companies manage their capital … Continued

Highlights: Wachtell Lipton has petitioned the US Securities and Exchange Commission to modernize the blockholder reporting rules under Section 13(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to prevent exploitation by stockholder activists and address current market conditions and practices.  Among other things, the petition proposed that the time to publicly disclose such block acquisitions … Continued

This contribution is based on the Guide first published by China Law & Practice, in association with International Financial Law Review, Hong Kong, 2011.[/stextbox] Highlights: Latin American markets have put in a stellar performance in recent years and present ever-growing business opportunities to Chinese investors, as China becomes increasingly active and influential in the region. … Continued

Highlights The Australian public M&A market has seen more restrained activity in the 12 months to 30 June 2012, in line with global trends. The energy and resources sectors continue to dominate public M&A in Australia, accounting for about 50% of transactions. Success rates for transactions increased to 81% in FY2012, while the percentage of … Continued

Highlights:  China’s two governmental regulators for anti-monopoly conducts in China announced that they will increase the transparency of their enforcement actions under the Anti-Monopoly Laws. One head of SAIC discussed its future goals: (1) to investigate those typical antitrust cases having serious impact on market competition; (2) to investigate monopoly conducts of public utility enterprises … Continued

Highlights: The Competition Commission of Singapore (“CCS”) has published its revised Guidelines on Merger Procedures 2012 and they came into effect on 1 July 2012. The changes provide further guidance to parties on determining whether a merger is likely to result in a substantial lessening of competition. They also set out a new procedure for … Continued