“Commercial Awareness Is Global.”
By: Ainsley Brown Listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) could become a much quicker process in 2011 if several of the leading investment banks in the UK follow through with their plans. It currently takes five weeks generally to go from a company announcing its intention to list to it being placed on the LSE – the banks
By: Eran D. Grossman Yes that’s right. With growing concern about a commercial real estate bust and home prices continuing to fall, real estate stocks are soaring. What you say? Shares of Real Estate Investments Trusts, a/k/a REITs, are lucrative investment vehicles thus far in 2010. The IShares Dow Jones Real Estate exchange-traded fund, which owns about seventy-five real estate
By: Ainsley Brown This forms part of the Middle Passage Law Series on Law Is Cool. American International Group, better know by its acronym AIG, it seems these days can rarely catch a break. It just seems negative news follows negative news for this company. This time the negative news for this too big to fail company – deeply wounded
By: Ainsley Brown Credit Suisse has agreed to settle allegations of insider trading in Brazil for R$19.2 million. The fine is the second largest, after the Banco Safra case of 2007, levied on a company by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Brazil – Commissão de Valores Mobiliários (CVM). The offer to settle is substantially more than Credit Suisse’s original
By Charles Wanguhu In the current financial crisis the role of offshore havens have been placed in the spotlight and quite rightly so. The lack of transparency in their dealings has meant that these centres have not only been used for tax evasion, money laundering, but also as bases for special purpose entities. The role of British offshore havens has
By: Ainsley Brown Yes, you read right, Tim Hortons is back in Canada. I like most of you never knew it went anywhere. I know what you are thinking: Ainsley, you must either be playing a prank, or going crazy or were you just up late and tired and in desperate of a double double because I just brought some
By: Ainsley Brown The question that faces Australian securities regulators is what to do about two or more Chinese state owned enterprises together owing substantial shareholdings in an Australian company? At first blush it would appear that this is a case of China take over fear, however there is much more to the story than this. Indeed, there is a
By Charles Wanguhu A report by the Economist Intelligence Unit indicates that protecting a firm’s reputation is the most important and difficult task facing corporations. With the development of global media and communication channels, managing reputational damage is seen as crucial with events undertaken in even the remotest areas affecting the international brand of a corporation. For Shell the stark
By Charles Wanguhu In original multinational thinking the lack of a significant middle class meant that investment in some emerging markets was considered not viable. The financial crisis has sprung up some few suprises. While AIG parent company has been largely reliant on US government funds their subsidiaries in Kenya, South Africa and Uganda have been financially strong and have
By: Carsten Lexa, LL.M. During the last several months, some German midsize companies have turn to the UK to undergo insolvency proceedings. They seem to be quiet happy with their decision and, more importantly, they were successful: Today, companies like DNick Holding (formerly Deutsche Nickel AG) or Schefenacker (today separated into the two independent companies odelo and Visioncorp) prosper and