GRANITO assists SMEs across Europe in identifying possible sources of funding to support the entrepreneurial initiatives through traditional and non-traditional channels of funding. Moving beyond banks in an economic environment where traditional banking sources have dried up, GRANITO provides guidance for accessing national and EU funds and uses CrowdFunding as an additional alternative. According to some sources, more than 50% of the available CrowdFunding platforms are based in Europe, with progressive initiatives being utilized to take full advantage of the public...

The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers is the largest bankruptcy filing in US history with Lehman holding over US$ 600 billion in assets. The Netherlands based Lehman Brothers Treasury Co B.V. ("LBT") was the most important financing entity of the Lehman Brothers group and by far the largest creditor in the US bankruptcy. At LBT's bankruptcy date (8 October 2008), over US$ 30 billion of nominal value worth of financial instruments (notes) were outstanding. These notes were held by retail...

The Belgium Government has introduced a raft of new tax regulations for corporations and individuals that will come into force in 2014. There are four changes to the tax regulations that will be most relevant to Vistra's private and corporate clients: 1. New 'Fairness Tax' on corporate dividends The new Fairness Tax will affect large companies starting in the 2014 tax year - the tax will be levied on distributed corporate dividends. This new corporate income tax will be levied at a...

GRANITO's London office announces a new and expansive endeavor in the area of alternative dispute resolution directed at assisting corporations with a nexus in the U.K. GRANITO's experience in the field of commercial alternative dispute resolution began years ago in the U.S. at the American Arbitration Association and FINRA, and then moved on to the business sector in Europe. Bearing in mind that the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) and the UK International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) administers an increasing number of disputes involving non-English businesses who find themselves in an alternative dispute forum, GRANITO's experienced and multi-lingual team is poised...

According to a story in Crain's New York a few days ago, the law firm Reed Smith is in talks to become the anchor tenant at the new development at 7 Bryant Park in Midtown Manhattan. Reed Smith currently occupies about 15% of 599 Lexington Avenue, an office building in Midtown East that backs $750 million in CMBS debt. That debt is split pari-passu across three deals: A $225 million loan in JPMCC 2007-CB19 (8.3% of the deal), a $225 million piece in JPMCC 2007-LDPX (6.1%...

In 2010, the New Jersey Supreme Court created a qualified privilege for an employee taking documents to support an employment discrimination suit.1  However, this past December, in State of New Jersey v. Ivonne Saavedra,2 the Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division, ruled that the qualified privilege should not be applied to protect a criminal defendant from a grand jury indictment for “official misconduct” for having taken those documents to support a retaliatory discharge claim. Procedural History In November 2009, the defendant...

New laws that went into effect on January 1, 2014, are a harbinger of what employers may expect to see in the coming year regarding workplace privacy: more restrictions on access to applicants’ and employees’ criminal history, credit information, and personal social media content.  To further complicate the challenges of addressing privacy in the workplace, employers will be required to grapple with next-generation issues raised by the use of social media as a business tool and the increasing adoption...

DS-Concept Factoring, Inc., a global commercial finance company specializing in international non-recourse factoring, has provided a $20 million accounts receivable facility to a Dutch packaging manufacturer. As the client has operations in The Netherlands and United States and sells internationally, Euro, US Dollar, and GBP pound sterling factoring lines were required, and provided. DS-Concept was approached by the company to provide support for their growing sales and the significant customer sales concentration in their portfolio. DS-Concept was able to work alongside the...