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International Edition

Minter Ellison elects Brisbane corporate partner as new chairman

Minter Ellison has appointed corporate partner Bruce Cowley to chairman following an announcement by competition partner Russell Miller to step down from the role. Cowley, who has been elected unanimously by the firm, is a senior corporate lawyer and currently chair of the firm's Brisbane office. He will assume the new position on July 1.
2 minute read

International Edition

CC recruits Latham partner to head Singapore funds practice

Clifford Chance (CC) has recruited Latham & Watkins partner Kai Schneider to lead the firm's funds team in Singapore. Schneider, who was previously based in Dubai as head of the US firm's funds practice for the Middle East and Africa, will join CC in Singapore to lead the funds and investment practice in the office, replacing Han Ming Ho, who is due to leave CC for Sidley Austin.
3 minute read

International Edition

Freshfields, Simpson Thacher line up for multibillion-dollar Alibaba IPO

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett are understood to have taken much-coveted roles on the Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO) of Alibaba, China's largest e-commerce company. The potential listing, which has attracted much market interest, is set to be the biggest IPO since Facebook's high-profile listing last year.
2 minute read

International Edition

Herbert Smith Freehills secondments soar amid post-merger integration push

Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) has ramped up its use of international secondments in the wake of last year's UK-Australia tie-up, as the firm moves to more closely integrate its business around the world. The firm's post-merger integration push has seen the number of employees on secondment around the world rise from 155 during 2011 to 283 in 2012 – an increase of more than 80%. A total of 70 secondees have moved between the firm's offices since last October, the month the merger went live – more than double the 26 who moved offices in the equivalent period during 2011-12. Approximately half of the moves since the merger have comprised staff transferring to and from Australia.
2 minute read

International Edition

Dubai dreaming – the Middle East is coming to the fore as Europe struggles

Competing against countries from Europe, South America and Asia, Dubai's bid to host the World Expo in 2020 is redolent of the growth in prominence of the Middle East in recent years. With the emirate pitching to bring the exhibition to the Middle East for the first time, delegates at Legal Week's Corporate Counsel Forum Middle East suggested the bid was symbolic of increasing scrutiny on how Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries stack up against markets in Europe and Asia on the wider business stage. Speaking at the recent event, which was held at the Mina A'Salam, Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai, Iain Linney, a global capital markets regulatory specialist and formerly executive director at WestLB and Farouk Soussa, chief economist for the Middle East at Citi, sized up the opportunities for businesses looking to expand or invest in the GCC.
6 minute read

International Edition

The cost of compliance – offshore tax structures are in the spotlight post-G8

Top of David Cameron's stated agenda for the G8 summit on 17-18 June was a move towards tax openness and transparency – part of a political campaign that came into the media spotlight last year when it was discovered that large multinationals such as Google and Starbucks had avoided paying large sums of tax in the UK. But lawyers in offshore jurisdictions are divided as to whether the UK's calls for automatic tax information exchange, hot on the heels of the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), will have a positive or negative impact either on or offshore. What is clear is that this move towards global tax information exchange is well underway, with more governments signing up all the time – with the exception of China, which has sufficient economic clout not to feel pressured to fall in line with what the US or any other jurisdiction might demand.
8 minute read

International Edition

Linklaters and Sullivan take top roles on $1.7bn China milk acquisition

Linklaters and Sullivan & Cromwell (S&C) are advising on China Mengniu Dairy's acquisition of Yashili International for $1.7bn (£1.08bn). The deal, announced this week, is seen as an attempt to consolidate China's milk production industry which was hit hard by the 2008 Chinese milk scandal - a food safety incident which saw 54,000 babies hospitalised.
2 minute read

International Edition

KWM continues management shake up with two new practice heads

King & Wood Mallesons has appointed two new practice heads in Australia following the departure of two of its senior partners last month. Sydney-based Tim Bednall, previously chairman of the Australian board, is replacing Tim Blue as head of corporate M&A and tax, whilst Scott Gardiner, managing partner for energy and natural resources and China, also based in Sydney, will add to his responsibilities management of the real estate and construction practice previously overseen by Sue Kench.
3 minute read

International Edition

HK regulatory chief cautions against taking legal advice on price-sensitive info

Hong Kong's market enforcement chief has warned listed companies against relying solely on legal advice when disclosing price sensitive information in line with new regulations. Mark Steward, executive director of enforcement at the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), said lawyers were not qualified to advise on what constituted price sensitive or 'inside information' - which was defined by its ability to impact the behaviour of investors.
4 minute read

International Edition

DLA and Weil lead on AXA and China's Fosun Club Med bid

DLA Piper and Weil Gotshal & Manges have secured advisory roles on a deal that could see Chinese conglomerate Fosun International and Paris-based AXA Private Equity buy French resort operator Club Mediterranee for a reported €556m (£473m). The deal, should it go ahead, would see Fosun and AXA each owning a 46% stake in Club Med, with the remaining 8% of shares to be held by the resort group's management team. The two investors currently own 20% between them. DLA Piper is advising China's Fosun, with Paris-based corporate partner Jeremy Scemama leading a team that also includes Palo Alto-based M&A partner Paul Chen.
2 minute read

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