The Legal 500

With Judgement n. 19509 dated 14 September 2010, the Italian Supreme Court handed down its decision on the long-debated issue of how to treat mergers completed prior to the 2003 revision of the Italian Civil Code.

Article by Timothy Loh and Sherry Xiao

Are the Courts sealing the fate of struggling hedge funds too early or should they be given further time to recover and realize their potential for investors? 

New provisions: "Prior Art" refers to an art publicly known within and outside the country before the filing date; while Prior Design refers to a design publicly known within and outside the country before the filing date. Prior Art include arts that are being publicly disclosed in publications worldwide, publicly used or made known to public in the country in any other manner before the filing date (or priority date, in case a priority is claimed)

The long-awaited Securities and Investment Business Bill, 2010 (commonly referred to as “SIBA”) received its first reading by the BVI House of Assembly on 18 March 2010. This follows public consultation in Summer 2009.

The United States’ Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware has recognised the liquidation of a Cayman company, Saad Investments Finance Company (No5) Limited (“SIFCO5”) (an SPV established to operate as an investment company), as a “foreign main proceeding” under Chapter 15 of the United States’ Bankruptcy Code.

As the British Virgin Islands continues to play a vital role in facilitating global trade and investment, it turns its attention to helping its more than 60,000 new companies per year build a business environment where innovation can be a key economic driver. Towards this end, the BVI Financial Services Commission (the “FSC”), which is the public body with responsibility for, among other things, administering the intellectual property laws of the BVI, announced on 5 January 2010 the establishment of a Focus Group to review and revise the existing IP laws

With a global economic downturn in full swing, companies around the world are looking for ways to safeguard their future existence. The strategies employed to do so are numerous and varied but a number of companies have employed the use of corporate arrangement schemes entered into with their creditors, investors and other stakeholders as a way to refocus and preserve their business.

The meltdown in global financial markets has triggered a consolidation of the financial services industry as securities firms, asset managers, insurers and banks alike spin-off assets and restructure their operations to shore up capital. These transactions are often global in nature, involving substantial Hong Kong operations. In this article, we review the basic Hong Kong legal and regulatory framework for these transactions and present some lessons learned.

Allegations of share splitting in the proposed privatization of PCCW have raised an important question as to how the statutory majority to approve a scheme of arrangement should be determined. This question is significant both in the short-term for investors trading PCCW and in the long-term in the context of future schemes of arrangement. In this article, we  examine the applicable laws and regulations with a view to providing hedge funds and other investors with guidance.

The recent global financial crisis has resulted in an upswing in regulatory action throughout world markets. In Hong Kong, the Securities and Futures Commission (“SFC”) has proposed a slew of new requirements, some of which have already been implemented retroactively and without industry consultation. In this article we examine these ongoing developments in SFC policy and their effectiveness in reaching a fair balance between investor protection and costs to the investor and the financial industry.