Blog Posts
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Indian Corporate Law: Now on Television
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] No! It is not this blog that is on television – but the subject-matter of the blog. CNBC-TV18 has launched a series titled “THE FIRM – Corporate Law in India”. The series is expected to deal with issues such as hostile takeovers and defences, corporate governance and other issues pertaining to…
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Derivatives – a constructive critique
[Posted by Pramod Rao] In what i thought could come in as an observation to an earlier post by Kartik – see https://indiacorplaw.in/2008/03/trading-in-futures-financia.html below – turned out slightly differently. so here goes: In considering law governing derivatives in India, couple or more items are noteworthy: Firstly, a very significant development in the Indian legal regime…
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The National Investment Fund
[Posted by Gauri Manglik] Day before yesterday, SEBI has amended the DIP Guidelines to include the National Investment Fund in the definition of ‘Qualified Institutional Buyers’ (QIBs).The National Investment Fund was set up from the proceeds of disinvestment of public sector undertakings. It is intended to be used primarily for funding health and education projects.…
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Enforcement of Corporate Governance Norms
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] A new paper “Corporate Governance, Enforcement, and Firm Value: Evidence from India” authored by Dhammika Dharmapala & Vikramaditya Khanna has been posted on SSRN. Here is the abstract: “This paper analyzes the effects of corporate governance reforms and enforcement on stock market development and firm value, using a sequence of corporate…
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Pitfalls in Emerging Market Investments
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] A recent unsuccessful bid by Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Temasek to take a 24% stake in China Eastern Airlines is symptomatic of several pitfalls that exist in large investments in emerging markets. Knowledge@Wharton carries an interesting analysis of that case, a synopsis of which is as follows: “It was a perfect…
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Trading in Futures – Financial Instruments of Mass Destruction?
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] The exposure of Indian corporates and banks to derivatives has been receiving a lot of attention lately. For example, see LiveMint (here and here), Financial Express and Economic Times. But, what are some of the key legal considerations that arise in the case of derivative transactions? To examine those, we have…
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Changes in FDI Policy
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] There were some significant changes to the foreign direct investment (FDI) policy earlier this week. The Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion issued as many as six press notes on March 12, 2008 (available here). The changes are in the following sectors: 1. Credit Information Companies;2. Commodity Exchanges;3. Industrial Parks;4. Civil…
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India Business: A Few Updates
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] 1. Indian Acquisitions in the United StatesOne of our regular readers, Mohit Gogia, who is a lawyer currently based in New York, brings to our attention a report titled “US-Bound Acquisitions by Indian Companies” that has been prepared by Virtus Global Partners. This report contains a snapshot of Indian acquisitions of…
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Libido can’t dilute Spitzer’s contribution to clean markets
[Posted by Somasekhar Sundaresan] Some sections of Wall Street are in celebration mode. Others are deeply disappointed. Eliot Spitzer, governor of New York, once the fire-spitting crusader attorney general of the State of New York, who had cleaned up the capital market with his incisive prosecution of questionable practices on Wall Street, has owned up…
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Buyouts & Law Firms
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] Thus far, I could only imagine law firms being involved in private equity funding and buyouts as legal advisors on deals. But, now it appears that we may begin to witness private equity funding and buyouts OF law firms. For details: Law.com and TimesOnline.