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India Unleashed

27 October 2017

Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek's Dr André-M Szesny, LLM, Dr Susanne Stauder and Anna Coenen explain Germany's new transparency register.

02 October 2017

United Arab Emirates United Arab Emirates (“UAE”) is a federation of seven Emirates, which were formed on 2 December 1971. The country has emerged as a global trading hub and as a gateway to the Gulf Co-operation Council countries (“GCC”) with which it enjoys legal and commercial agreements and treaties. It also leads the GCC countries in providing access to one of the leading financial markets in the region based out of the Dubai International Financial Center (“DIFC”).

20 September 2017

The Indian legal talent market remains buoyant as we move through 2017 and we see strong hiring activity continuing across both private practice firms and in-house legal teams. This positivity can be attributed to the fact that Indian industry has witnessed a steady rise over the past few years in terms of productivity, expansion and revenue.

27 July 2017

Despite these positive signals, India suffers from a legacy perception of the license Raj. Investors face a host of legal and regulatory risks, including foreign exchange, foreign investment restrictions, and corruption. Foreign investments into India are subject to the FDI Policy of the Government of India and the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).

25 July 2017

Yes, the Indian tax structure has all along been very complex and unpredictable owing to a host of factors, such as a multiplicity of taxes, divergent interpretations, the absence of a coherent administrative set-up coupled with unrealistic revenue targets, and a propensity to resort to amendments (including retrospective amendments), by successive governments. In this decade, for foreign investors, the “indirect transfer” of shares case of Vodafone symbolizes all that has been wrong with the Indian tax system. Despite winning at the Supreme Court, the Government in 2012 retrospectively amended the Income Tax Act, 1961 (“IT Act”) to overcome the Supreme Court ruling and to tax indirect transfers involving foreign companies/investors.

25 July 2017

Despite the progress, there are still quite a few structures which, though common abroad, are difficult to implement in India. A traditional leverage buy-out, which might otherwise seem fairly straightforward, is not permissible under the Indian legal regime. To make a leverage buy-out work, acquirers need to demonstrate an appetite for innovative structures.

25 July 2017

Traditionally, Indian companies have been a family run affair, with the promoter (founder) shareholders hesitant to lose control over the family business. As a corollary, private equity investments were also conventionally minority investments. But the growth of the Indian economy has given birth to a new generation of entrepreneurs - the executive-turned-entrepreneur as well as those joining the start-up band wagon.

25 July 2017

In March this year, the UK government served formal notice under Article 50 of The Treaty on European Union (‘EU’) to terminate the UK’s membership of the EU. This starts a two year notice period, which means the UK’s exit (or ‘Brexit’) will most take effect in March 2019. In the meantime, the UK will seek to negotiate the terms of exit and future trading relationships.

24 July 2017

Singapore has proved to be the destination of choice for many Indian corporates doing business overseas, though historically other markets such as London and New York have also had close ties with India. With its highly developed and successful free market economy, low taxation, proximity to the Indian subcontinent, numerous direct flights and sizable Indian population, Singapore’s trade ties with India have flourished.

24 July 2017

One of the fundamentals of a good law is that it must lead to adequate compliance by the target citizenry that it seeks to govern. The prerequisite for such compliance includes, but is not limited to, the temporal relevance that it holds in the society. Unless the discourse of law adjusts itself organically to the ever increasing and changing needs of the society, it would be relegated as an anachronism. This holds much more relevance in a dynamic information technology driven society that we are a part of today.

23 July 2017

The Russian M&A market is recovering. According to Mergermarket, the aggregate deal value of Russian M&A equaled USD35 billion in 2016: there were 172 deals and the average deal size was USD203.5 million. The largest M&A deals involving foreign investors were:

19 July 2017

Over the past couple of years, India has registered rapid economic growth, with the GDP growing 7.6% in the last fiscal year. The country’s economic profile has also witnessed a dramatic shift over a long period from rural –based agricultural production to urban economic activities, and from low-value manufacturing to high-value services. Indeed, the economy is on track to maintain its current growth rate for the rest of this year too. Though economic activity is buoyant, the country still has a long way to go. The Modi government must capitalize on the current economic momentum and use it to accelerate its reform agenda.

19 July 2017

Cross-border transactions make up the majority of Swiss M&A transactions. Besides the above mentioned mega deals, recent cross-border transactions included Lonza’s USD 5.5 billion acquisition of US-based Capsugel, the acquisition of a 20% stake in Russia-based Rosneft by a consortium led by Glencore and the Qatar Investment Authority for USD 11 billion as well as the takeover by HNA Group of gategroup (USD 2 billion) and private equity fund EQT Partners’ takeover of travel company Kuoni (USD 1.4 billion).

17 July 2017

The mandate of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in the asset management space, has translated into various regulations, through which SEBI regulates funds (domestic and offshore) as well as certain managers/advisers.

12 July 2017

India and Japan share a long history. Buddhism, which was born in India, travelled to Japan around the 6th century. The first major interaction between Japan and India seems to have been Japanese assistance to Shri Subhash Chandra Bose in the fight for Indian independence (1943-45). Post WWII, Japan and India signed a peace treaty and established diplomatic relations on 28th April, 1952. Since then, there have been interactions between Japan and India at various levels, which have increased in the last couple of decades.

28 June 2017

Established in 1948, Israel is the world’s only Jewish state, and the sole democracy in its vicinity. Israel has a diverse open market economy. Being a relatively young state, Israel is recognized as a developed market by many major indices. Israel has been a member of the high-income sector of the OECD since 2010.

28 June 2017

No country can attract foreign trade and investment without a modicum of rule of law and stability in governance. Rule of law requires not only a set of easily understood norms and procedures, but also independent institutions where such norms are enforced without fear or favour. It is no coincidence that Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice features a trial scene: Venice’s wealth as a trading nation was built on its institutions’ ability to impartially and rigorously enforce contracts in accordance with the law. Hubs of commerce in the modern world such as London, Singapore, Hong Kong and Dubai all boast of excellent institutions designed to resolve commercial disputes in an impartial, effective, and efficient manner.

28 June 2017

On April 12, 2017, the Brazilian Central Bank cut the SELIC benchmark interest rate by 1% as inflation for the twelve months ended March 2017 slowed to 4.57% from a high of 10.71% for the twelve month period ended January 2016. Although GDP declined by almost 3.5% in 2016 over the prior year, foreign direct investment into Brazil increased by 6 per cent over the same period to 78.9 billion dollars. Anectodal evidence suggests that M&A activity has increased in Brazil as Brazil`s third largest airline Azul successfully sold 645 million dollars of shares in an initial public offering listing its shares on the New York Stock Exchange and the Sao Paulo BM&F Bovespa.

27 June 2017

India makes it really difficult to maintain perspective sometimes when gung-ho headlines, government statements and statistics only ever tell part of its story. Yes, at give-or-take around 7%, India’s GDP is growing faster than most other countries and this is predicted to continue increasing next year. But is this enough? And, importantly, are India’s lawyers ready to keep pace?

27 June 2017

I would like to congratulate Legally India for having established itself as a progressive, galvanizing force for the Indian legal fraternity, against many odds. This publication represents an incremental step in Legally India’s journey and a timely reminder of India’s economic potential. These days, I am more confident (but not complacent) that India will not simply fritter away its demographic dividend as the narrative shifts from that of a tiger caged to a tiger on the tail of a dragon.