Member News, News

M&A in 2014: Luxury Brands on Sale or Seeking for Financial Partners

The last quarter of 2013 saw a substantial M&A activity in the luxury and premium branded goods industry. According to the news circulating in the sector, many multinational brands as well as smaller brands are seeking for strategic financial partners that may help the brand to expand and support their business in the globalization era. This interest of luxury companies in the collection of investment made by financial partners are aimed at collecting funds that may assist them in complex...

Read more

Member News, News

New Substance Requirements Tackles Tax Avoidance Schemes

The Netherlands offers a solid combination of a stable economy, a reliable tax regime and a sophisticated, internationally oriented infrastructure. In addition, the Dutch economy is noted for its stable industrial relations and plays an important role as a European transportation hub. The Dutch government strongly supports that the legal and economic environment remains attractive for multinational companies to locate their (regional) headquarters in the Netherlands. On 30 August 2013, the Dutch minister of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation and...

Read more

Chapter News, News

EU Council Agrees to General Approach on Single Resolution Mechanism

The European Council today set out its position on the establishment of a single resolution board and a single fund for the resolution of banks. It called on the presidency to start negotiations with the European Parliament with the aim of agreeing the regulation on the single resolution mechanism (SRM) at first reading before the end of the Parliament's current legislature (May 2014). The compromise reached within the Council consists of a draft regulation on the single resolution mechanism, and a...

Read more

Chapter News, News

Update on the Third Round of Negotiations on a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership

December 19, 2013 -- Today, at the mid-point of the third round of Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations, US and EU negotiators took time to share information with and hear viewpoints from more than 350 stakeholders from environmental, consumer, and other non-governmental organizations, labour unions, business, and academia. US Chief Negotiator Dan Mullaney and EU Chief Negotiator Ignacio Garcia-Bercero and their teams participated in a three-hour session. This included more than 50 policy presentations on issues including consumer...

Read more

Member News, News

Motor City Loan to Watch in Coming Years

One of the stories heralding the comeback of the CMBS market in the fall of 2012 surrounded the first CMBS loan to be written on a Detroit office building in five years. The loan was the $26.6 million One Kennedy Square note. The Wall Street Journal's Maura Webber Sadovi had written an article on the loan at the time. A new story from the WSJ on Wednesday revived our interest in the note. Yesterday's article was regarding the increase in office property sales in the...

Read more

Member News, News

The Global Hunt on Corruption is About to Intensify

The global cost of corruption is estimated at US$ 1 trillion by the World Bank Institute. The audience at the 6th In-house Counsel Monitor event Monday 2 December in Amsterdam was given an opening wake-up call by Jermyn Brooks, Board Member and Chair, Business Advisory Board of Transparency International. This is an enormous amount of money hampering fair competition and in the end mostly burdening low income earners and small businesses. After an initial period with a few landmark cases,...

Read more

Chapter News, News, Trade & TTIP Related

Negotiators meet for the third round of Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) talks

December 17, 2013 -- U.S. and EU teams met today in Washington D.C. for the first day of the third round of negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) Negotiators responsible for services, government procurement, energy and raw materials, sanitary and phytosanitary barriers, intellectual property rights, labor and trade issues, textiles, small- and medium-sized enterprises, regulatory coherence, and sectoral regulatory approaches began their work on Monday, and will hold additional meetings other days this week. You may also be...

Read more

Member News, News

PEPPER HAMILTON CLIENT ALERT: Observation 1.0 on the Volcker Rule

‘You Know It When You See It’ – Or Do You? This is first in Pepper’s series of Client Alerts dealing with specific effects of the ‘Volcker Rule’ on various market segments. On December 10, 2013, after more than three years of intensive development, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (FRB), Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) adopted...

Read more

Chapter News, News

Statement by Commissioner Barnier on the appointment of Danièle Nouy as first Chairperson of the Supervisory Board of the Single Supervisory Mechanism

"I welcome the appointment by the Member States of Danièle Nouy as first Chairperson of the Supervisory Board of the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) (IP/12/953). Her nomination was approved by the European Parliament last week." "As Chair of the Supervisory Board of the SSM, Danièle Nouy will play a central role in the banking union. She is an excellent choice for the tough job ahead. Building a brand new structure to supervise banks in Europe is a major challenge and...

Read more

Member News, News

TREPP: 2 Credit Stories & Trading Alert for New York Properties

Trading Alert: NYC Hotel Modified, Backs 2007 Deal Barclays reported late on Thursday that the $46.6 million Crowne Plaza - LaGuardia loan has been modified. (Kudos to the Barclays research team for unearthing the bankruptcy court documents that contained the details.) The 358 room hotel located near LaGuardia airport was built in 1986 and renovated in 2005. The loan was originally slated to mature in March 2017, but the date has been pushed out to November 2023. The loan was also originally locked out...

Read more