“Commercial Awareness Is Global.”
By: Carsten Lexa, LL.M. The German Federal Council (Deutscher Bundesrat) does not like the European Private Company (EPC). With resolution of Oktober 10, 2008 the Federal Council criticises the conditions for the EPC, set out in the proposal for a “Regulation regarding the European Private Company Statute” by the European Commission of June 2008. The Federal Council has two main issues
By: Carsten Lexa, LL.M. In the European Union, each of the 27 Member States provides regulation for different types of companies. Because of this diversity it is becoming increasingly difficult to know all the differences between the different types. Especially because the European Court of Justice has allowed the utilization of companies set up in one of the Member States
By: Ainsley Brown General Motors (GM) this week in another move in its restructuring plan has taken further steps to divest itself of its European operations. First it was Swedish Saab now it’s the UK’s Vauxhall. According to the report in the Times GM is prepared to sell Vauxhall at a discount price – you could even say at a
By: Ainsley Brown In court papers presented to creditors in early April, the Swedish car maker, Saab explained that it has had extensive contacts with about 20 potential buyers. Saab, which is being cut lose by General Motors (GM) as part of its own restructuring efforts, filed for bankruptcy in February. In filing for bankruptcy Saab is hoping to buy
By: Ainsley Brown Happy Easter everyone. Since it’s the Easter season I thought I ought to get into the sprite of things – well the secular aspects to the season anyway – and do an Easter story. So here is a little story about Cadbury, yes Cadbury the chocolate maker. The UK confectionary – the maker of the Creme Egg
By: Ainsley Brown In what would be the largest acquisition in IBM’s history, talks to take over its rival Sun Microsystems have collapsed. The deal worth an estimated $7 billion broke off after Sun Microsystems’ dissatisfaction with the share price IMB was offering consequently it terminated IBM’s exclusive negotiating status. In response IBM withdrew its offer. All of this could
By: Ainsley Brown The Suncor Energy Inc. attempted take over of Petro-Canada is going to prove to be the first test of the amended and some would say controversial Competition Act. According to the new rules the Competition Bureau has a 30 day tome frame in which to either approve the C$19.2 billion deal or issue a second request from
By: Rechtsanwalt (Attorney) Carsten Lexa, LL.M. In November 2008 Germany introduced a new type of company – the so-called “Business Company (with limited liability)” (“Unternehmergesellschaft (haftungsbeschränkt)” – UG). Essentially, this is a variation of the highly successful German “Limited Liability Company” (“Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung” – GmbH), and therefore the regulations regarding the Limited Liability Company, set out in the
By Charles Wanguhu In early 90’s Nike suffered a huge backlash from the revelations of child labour in use in its factories abroad there was a drive to ensure that clothing was environmentally sound. In early 2000 a push for carbon footprint labelling ensured that the consumer was conscious of the effect of their consumption habits on the climate. In
By: Ainsley Brown Christian Milton, a former vice-president of American International Group Inc. (AIG) was sentenced last week to 4 years for his part in a US $597 Million fraud scheme. The scheme which began in 2000 defrauded AIG shareholders by the aforesaid amount by allowing AIG to improve its balance sheet. Mr. Milton can count himself luck for