Australia: Tighter Restrictions on Foreign Takeovers

  The Australian government approved legislation to tighten rules preventing foreign investors from using complex takeover arragements to bypass relevant laws to gain control of an Australian company.  The changes, approved yesterday, mean financial instruments such as convertible…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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EU: Better Late Than Never

It may have been a long time coming, and certainly well after the liberalization envisaged in the originating Treaties of Rome (i.e. the treaties establishing the EEC, the precursor to the EU, which came into effect in 1958),…

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Jordan: Prime Minister Encourages Foreign Investment

Samir Rifai, Jordan’s Prime Minister, in speaking with the Jordan Security Commission, said the new income tax law will encourage local and foreign investments and will not be a law focused on “collection”, adding that there will be…

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Canada: Sending the Right Message – Competition is Good

The Canadian Government took a decisive step in supporting a competitive environment in wireless telecommunications, with a decisions to overrule the Canadian Radio and Television Commission’s earlier decision not to approve Globalive’s entry into the Canadian market at…

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Ireland: Remains “Pro-Business” in Recent Announcements

The Irish government reaffirmed its commitment to both the 12.5% corporations tax, and the tax holiday for business start-ups.  The minister also announced accelerated capital cost allowance, and reaffirmed his support of R&D tax credits regime. Independent (Ireland)…

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Australia: Taxation on Subsequent Transfer of Art

The Resale Royalty for Visual Artists Act 2009, which was passed by the Australian Senate into law last week (November 26th) will mean Australia’s visual artists will receive a portion of the proceeds from the resale of their…

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