Russia: The Validity of Shareholders’ Agreements within the Russian Federation

In the summer of 2009, the Russian legislative authorities amended the federal legislation in order to recognize the validity of agreements among shareholders of Russian joint-stock companies.  The Amendments recognize shareholders agreements as a special contractual type and…

Read more

Australia: Directors, Entrepreneurship, Insolvencies and the Law

The Rudd government appears to be changing its tune, when the Minister for Corporate Law, Chris Bowen, released a set of proposals to reform insolvency law to give company directors more protection from distressed companies and enhance the…

Read more

Venezuela: Chavez Continues March, Relies on Nationalization

Following the inextricable match towards the socialist utopia, and the destruction of the Venezuelan economy, President Hugo Chavez announced the seizure of French-Colombian supermarket chain Exito, on the grounds that it had broken the law by raising prices…

Read more

Brazil: How Independent Should the Central Bank Be?

A standoff between Argentina’s government and central bank has sharpened debate in neighboring Brazil over the need for Congress to pass a bill making the country’s central bank formally independent. While most developed nations struggle to ascertain the…

Read more

Chile: The “Entrepreneurial President”

Sebastián Piñera, Chile’s president-elect, has promised to apply the entrepreneurial skill that made him a billionaire to reinvigorating the national economy. Mr. Piñera maintains that by cutting red tape, enhancing investment incentives and administering the public sector more…

Read more

Malaysia: Broader Based Consumption Tax Proposed

Malaysia is poised to move from a general sales and services tax to a more broad based comprehensive Goods and Services Tax (“GST”).   The benefits of this sort of move is well documented in other countries, including…

Read more

France: The Country Adam Smith Forgot!

France, a country still recovering from the massive “egg on face” tax policy debacle of creating a “carbon tax” that exempted 93% of the population, only to be struck down by the constitutional court, on the grounds that…

Read more

New Zealand / Chile: NZ Tax Change Causes Cost to Increase for Chilean Operations

A delay in Greymouth moving forward with oil and gas production for over a year, and an intervening change in New Zealand tax law (as it relates to offsetting exploration costs in other countries against their New Zealand…

Read more

Brazil: Opportunities for Distressed Transactions

Increased M&A activity has occurred in Brazil over the past few years for several reasons, including the effectiveness of the Federal Law # 11.101/2005, the Brazilian Judicial Recovery Act, which has an important role in restructuring companies in…

Read more