The Supreme Court recently reached a decision concerning an appeal case against the National Court's annulment of a National Securities Market Commission agreement authorising a buy-out takeover. In particular, the Supreme Court took a stand on the potential conflicts of interest between the proposed evaluation report and the price offered in the takeover framework when the evaluation report is carried out by an independent expert.
Introduction
On 25 January 2021 President Biden signed an executive order (EO) to direct more spending of the federal government s $600 billion procurement budget on American-made products, while rethinking the existing regulatory framework.
By narrowing the loopholes that allow government purchases of foreign products, increasing agency accountability and directing agencies to seek out US suppliers, the EO aims to revitalise the domestic manufacturing industry and create American jobs in furtherance of Biden s economic recovery plan, Build Back Better.(1)
Key points
The EO directs the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Federal Acquisition Regulatory (FAR) Council, which assists in the direction and coordination of government-wide procurement regulatory activities, to:
The construction sector is one of the economic sectors that is permitted to operate during the second Movement Control Order (MCO 2.0). As such, on 14 January 2021 the Construction Industry Development Board of Malaysia s website published the standard operating procedure (SOP) that companies with permission to operate during MCO 2.0 must comply with when carrying out construction works (Construction SOP). This article discusses the key points of the Construction SOP.
Only critical construction works allowed
The Construction SOP stipulates that only critical construction works as specified in the Ministry of Works press statement of 12 January 2021 may be carried out during MCO 2.0 (for further details please see MCO 2.0: critical construction works allowed ).
One of the welcome measures of the Swiss corporate law reform is the so-called 'capital band', which provides companies with more flexibility regarding changes to their capital structure. Since Swiss-listed companies could have used the capital band in an abusive manner to generate tax advantages for certain types of shareholder, the respective tax legislation had to be adapted. All Swiss companies which are considering introducing a capital band should carefully plan ahead.
For the first time the Court of Appeal has considered the duties of an expert concurrently engaged in two potentially conflicting disputes. While
Secretariat Consulting Pte Ltd v A Company involved an unusual set of circumstances, it provides an interesting review of the duties owed by expert witnesses to their clients and the court and highlights important considerations for those engaging expert witnesses and drafting engagement letters.(1)
Facts
Secretariat Consulting Pte Ltd (SCL) provides expert litigation and arbitration support services to the construction industry. Based in Singapore, it is an entity within a larger group. SCL was approached by the solicitors of an organisation involved in a dispute to provide arbitration support and expert services in an arbitration (Arbitration 1) on delay and disruption. SCL ran a conflict check across all entities in the group and confirmed that it was clear. A confidentiality agreement was signed.