Regions

Highlights: Foreign investment projects in China are categorized into encouraged, permitted, restricted and prohibited projects.  The 2014 revisions to the Catalogue of Industries for Guiding Foreign Investment were made with the intention to substantially reduce the restricted projects, to loosen the restrictions on foreign shareholding percentage, and to primarily promote the opening-up of the manufacturing … Continued

MAIN ARTICLE Korea had the strongest and most active M&A market in 2014 during the past five years with a 47% increase in announced deal volume from USD 64.8 billion in 2013 to USD 95 billion in 2014 (based on Bloomberg statistics), and Kim & Chang had the privilege of advising on transactions accounting for … Continued

Executive Summary: 2014 witnessed significant changes to the laws and regulations governing public tender offers in France.  Among the more notable changes were: “passivity rule”: the reversal of France’s 2006 opt-in to the Takeover Directive’s version of the English “passivity rule”; double voting rights: the default rule for listed companies now provides double voting rights for all … Continued

Executive Summary: While most merger transactions have been passed by the Competition Commission of India (“CCI”) without conducting a detailed investigation, the CCI has escalated recent combinations to such greater review.  This article examines the procedure of the CCI in relation to so-called Phase II inquiries in proposed combinations and highlights some of the teething … Continued

Executive Summary: China’s Ministry of Commerce released for comment major legislation, the draft Foreign Investment Law, to overhaul the regulation of foreign direct investment.  The article below discusses how these major changes could impacting foreign investment enterprises and variable interest entities. MAIN ARTICLE The best way to understand the draft Foreign Investment Law (“Draft”), circulated by … Continued

Highlights: M&A was robust in 2014, hitting several noteworthy post-crisis high-water marks: total global volume reached US$3.5 trillion, cross-border volume reached US$1.3 trillion (37% of the total) and cross-border M&A involving U.S. companies reached US$770 billion (45% of which was incoming). We expect current trends to continue in 2015, driven, in several key regions, by … Continued

Executive Summary: We are pleased to share with you Davies Governance Insights 2014, the fourth edition of our annual analysis of important trends and developments in corporate governance for Canadian public companies during 2014. In Directors and Boards, we note that the gender profile of boards reveals a modest increase in female representation, as well … Continued

Highlights The Australian public M&A market has seen a resurgence in deal activity over the 12 months to 30 June 2014. The resurgence has been particularly strong in large transactions. FY2014 also saw an increase in competitive bid scenarios. Overall, success rates for transactions remained relatively steady at 64% in FY2014, up from 63% in … Continued

Main Article: The U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform recently published an essay, as part of a report on the litigation of foreign disputes in the U.S. federal courts, detailing the extraordinary impact that the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Morrison v. National Australia Bank has had on transnational securities litigation. After describing how Morrison … Continued

 Highlights:  New legislation, the Companies Bill 2012 due to become law in early 2015 will consolidate Irish company law into one comprehensive piece of legislation. The new company law regime will offer practical benefits and greater flexibility for Irish companies ranging from allowing companies to be incorporated more efficiently to radical reforms such as the … Continued