MAGAZINE
April 2019 Issue
Financier Worldwide Magazine
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COVER STORY
Sleepwalking to disaster: global risks in a volatile world
Mankind is standing on the precipice of a total breakdown – economically, geopolitically, technologically and environmentally. Such is the prognosis for the world and everything in it according to those tasked with calculating the potential...
FEATURES
Cross-border M&A is a key instrument for generating shareholder value and entering new markets. It allows companies to pursue new technologies, capabilities and products while driving growth, innovation and transformation. According to Willis Towers Watson...
In today’s tightly regulated economy, good corporate governance may be the best way to create lasting value. A strong sense of corporate governance means the board of directors is likely to meet more regularly, will have clearly defined responsibilities and will...
As the regulatory landscape has evolved, compliance departments and the chief compliance officer (CCO) have become increasingly important, helping organisations to adapt. Today, companies are beholden to ever-changing and escalating regulatory demands...
The impact of the five most popular and best-performing tech stocks – Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Alphabet, collectively known as FAANG stocks – on markets has been considerable in recent years. Indeed, the massive growth of these tech companies...
Cyber posture: the value proposition of security
Every organisation is potentially a target for a cyber attack. Large, small or somewhere in between, the day-to-day threat is real and pervasive. And with the threat of attack unlikely to lessen substantially anytime soon, an organisation with robust cyber...
ROUNDTABLE
THE PANELLISTS: Eduardo Gracia, Ashurst LLP; Luis Abrantes, Carlsberg; Jian-Cheng Ku, DLA Piper Nederland N.V.; Azedine Assassi, GE Aviation Division; Sebastine Odimma, MAERSK Transport and Logistics; and Nathaniel Carden, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP.
Transfer pricing (TP) is a pressing topic at the moment, with a number of key developments impacting tax regimes across the globe. These include the ongoing implementation of country-by-country reporting (CbCR) exchanges by tax authorities...
SPECIAL REPORT
Infrastructure & project finance
The financing of infrastructure and large-scale projects – in the mining industry, transportation and telecommunications sectors and energy industry, among many others – continues to be a top priority for financial institutions...
FORUM: Sustainability in infrastructure projects
FW moderates a discussion on sustainability in infrastructure projects between Benjamin Assante Di Panzillo at Egis, Rahul Agarwal at Invest India, Joanne Emerson Taqi at Norton Rose Fulbright (Middle East) LLP, and Simon Whistler at Principles for Responsible Investment.
Infrastructure investment: assessing the risk
S&P Global Ratings Understanding the past can help inform our present and future decisions. Infrastructure investors often hold this principle in high regard since their interest lies in assets that – among other traits – can typically offer longevity, monopolistic characteristics...
Building exposure to infrastructure – difficulties, options and a story of undeployed funds
GLIO Infrastructure maintenance, upgrades and developments are a high-order priority for federal governments worldwide. More specifically, this means investments in critical economic infrastructure, such as roads, railways, bridges, sea ports...
ESG and infrastructure investing, two sides of the same coin
Schroders With the world facing intensifying challenges as environmental tensions grow and populations age and urbanise, the relationship between environmental, social and governance (ESG) and infrastructure investment will only strengthen. Addressing these...
De-risking sustainable infrastructure
International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) The world needs about $3.7 trillion investment in infrastructure every year, according to the Global Infrastructure Hub. Despite all the efforts of governments, development finance institutions and the private sector, current spending on infrastructure still falls short by about $600bn...
Politics, proceduralisation and infrastructure finance
George Mason University Political risks have received raw treatment in infrastructure project finance. Generally, political risks are reduced to tail events (i.e., low probability/high impact events, like civil unrest and expropriation), or secluded to residual explanations (i.e., hazards...
European financial instruments and regulatory initiatives in support of digital infrastructure
European Commission The need to ‘do more with less’ has led the European Union (EU), and the European Commission (EC) in particular, to find innovative solutions to mobilise additional sources of capital to complement those available from the European budget...
Developing and financing toll road PPPs in Latin America
Egis Projects Following the collapse of the Morandi Bridge in Genoa, French economist Jacques Attali wrote “we place a stronger importance on cars that circulate on a bridge than on the solidity of the bridge itself”. For the development of transport infrastructure in Latin America...
India: guiding growth through infrastructure development
Invest India India today is at a strategic inflexion point of greater economic prosperity and unprecedented economic boom. India’s journey on the path of economic reform has transformed it into one of the world’s fastest growing economies. Infrastructure has been one of the...
Lessons the Middle East can learn from the UK’s PFI/PF2 model
Norton Rose Fulbright (Middle East) LLP As demand for public infrastructure increases in the Middle East, so too has the appetite for public-private partnership (PPP) projects in the region. In the wake of increasing debate around the feasibility of PPP projects in the UK, following the collapse of high profile...
TALKINGpoint
Digital transformation in the financial services sector
FW moderates a discussion on digital transformation in the financial services sector between Kevin Pleiter, Ilieva Ageenko, Joseph Pulicano, RK Madan and David G Royle at Grant Thornton.
DEALfront
mergers & acquisitions
$8.3bn Widex/Sivantos deal wins EU regulatory approval
The $8.3bn merger between Danish hearing aid manufacturer Widex and German rival Sivantos has moved another step closer to completion after it was announced the deal won European approval in February. The merger will create the third-largest player in the hearing...
Johnson & Johnson to buy Auris Health for $3.4bn
As part of its continuing focus on creating the next frontier of digital surgery, Johnson & Johnson is to buy Auris Health’s robotic platform in a $3.4bn cash deal. Additional contingent payments of up to $2.35bn may be payable upon reaching certain predetermined milestones...
private equity & venture capital
Hellman & Friedman led group agrees $11bn Ultimate Software deal
In an $11bn deal which takes the company private, human capital management (HCM) solutions in the cloud provider Ultimate Software is to be acquired by an investor group led by private equity firm Hellman & Friedman. Under the terms of the definitive agreement...
PE groups to acquire Scout24 in $6.4bn deal
Private equity firms Hellman & Friedman and Blackstone have agreed to acquire German digital marketplace company Scout24 in deal worth $6.4bn, including debt. The deal, which will be the largest ever buyout of a German company by the private equity industry...
bankruptcy & corporate restructuring
Ditech pursues pre-packaged restructuring
Mortgage originator Ditech Holding Corp, and its subsidiaries, including Ditech Financial LLC and Reverse Mortgage Solutions Inc, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York in February. This marks the...
Imerys Talc America files for Chapter 11 protection
In a move designed to position itself for future growth, Imerys Talc America, Inc., along with its subsidiaries Imerys Talc Vermont, Inc. and Imerys Talc Canada, Inc., have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The companies have filed for Chapter 11...
SPOTlight
Make-whole premium claims under the US Bankruptcy Code
Winthrop Couchot Golubow Hollander, LLP A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit recently issued a decision in the case of Ultra Petroleum Corp., et al. v. Ad Hoc Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Ultra Resources, Inc., et al. (In re Ultra Petroleum Corp.), 2019 WL 237365...
Cyber security and privacy: fiduciary considerations and Dodd-Frank’s enterprise risk management
Holland & Knight Technology, and the risks posed by our use of it, are ubiquitous. As more companies recognise cyber and data privacy matters as enterprise level risks, many struggle with how to address it as a top line risk and to ensure its directors and executives fulfil any relevant fiduciary...
Understanding US sanctions on Venezuela
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP The US sent shockwaves through the international oil, gas and financial markets on 28 January 2019, when it sanctioned Venezuela’s state-owned oil company Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PdVSA). This action, which represents the most stringent sanctions imposed on Venezuela...
CONTRIBUTORS
Ashurst LLP
Carlsberg
DLA Piper Nederland N.V.
Egis Projects
European Commission
GE Aviation Division
George Mason University
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP
GLIO
Grant Thornton
Holland & Knight
International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD)
Invest India
MAERSK Transport and Logistics
Norton Rose Fulbright (Middle East) LLP
Principles for Responsible Investment
S&P Global Ratings
Schroders
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP
Winthrop Couchot Golubow Hollander, LLP