Sky Blog
The London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) has been the standard floating rate benchmark for debt instruments of all kinds around the world for decades. It is calculated every banking day by polling major banks on their estimated borrowing costs for …
Following the decision of the English High Court[1] in the high profile test case brought by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (the “FCA”), the UK insurance industry faces the prospect of being liable to cover losses relating to COVID-19 …
Governments have tended to treat climate change as primarily an issue of environmental policy. Recent climate change-related events, ranging from hurricanes to forest fires to floods, and their devastating effects on the global economy, however, are gradually alerting regulators and …
In recent years, there has been a proliferation of merger control rules throughout the world as well as policy changes in the field. As shown by Amazon’s experience in its recent 16% minority shareholding acquisition of the online restaurant delivery …
Since the1990s, global investment in private equity has increased from under $10 billion per year to well over $100 billion. Over the same period, there has also been a shift from public markets in major economies like the U.S. and …
Material adverse change/effect (“MAC”) clauses have evolved into important risk-allocation mechanisms that are commonly included in high-profile mergers and acquisitions (“M&A”) and financing deals. They typically allow lenders or buyers to either terminate an agreement without cost or penalty or …
In the last few months, the UK and EU have separately outlined major plans that will soon bring a renewed focus to their fight against money laundering. Businesses will need to prioritise ensuring that their anti-money laundering (“AML”) controls are …
Competition v Privacy. Competition and consumer authorities are increasingly considering the implications of digital platforms’ ownership and use of consumer data and whether concerns about harm to privacy are indicative of a lack of competition.
For a long time the …
Interest in the environmental, social and governance (ESG) policies of companies and their impact on the wider community has continued to increase amongst institutional investors, retail shareholders and the media during the first half of 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic and …
On April 2, China’s Luckin Coffee announced that some of its employees, including the chief operating officer, had fabricated over $300 million in reported revenues. On April 21, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight …
In a new paper, “Protecting Contract’s Hidden Parties,” I argue that harm to third parties from supply chains offers a compelling reason for requiring human rights due diligence in supply chains. Many scholars have turned to fiduciary duties or negligence …
On July 16, 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) struck down the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield as a valid mechanism for transferring personal data from the European Economic Area (EEA) to the United States (Schrems II). The …
Notwithstanding the impact of COVID-19 on the global economy and market participants, from the perspective of regulators, working groups and industry leaders, the anticipated cessation of the London Interbank Offered Rate (“LIBOR”) remains the end of calendar year 2021.[1]…
The global financial crisis highlighted the interconnectedness of international financial markets and the risk of contagion it posed. The crisis also emphasized the importance of supranational regulation and regulatory cooperation to help address and ameliorate that risk.
Yet, although capital …
In the public imagination, Wirecard was Germany’s biggest tech company success story – a €24 billion high-growth payment processor doing deals across the globe and pioneering new technologies. While naysayers complained about its opaque corporate and financial practices and raised …
On 22 June 2020, the UK Government introduced new measures allowing it to intervene in merger transactions “to maintain in the United Kingdom the capability to combat, and to mitigate the effects of, public health emergencies.”[1] The Government will …
Convergence in corporate governance – the adoption by various countries of similar governance laws and practices – and whether it is even occurring have been a hot topic of debate over the past 20 years, particularly in the legal and …
The rapid global spread of COVID-19 in the first half of 2020 has had serious repercussions for governments, corporations, and institutional investors. Government responses have largely been fragmented, with each nation prioritizing its own interests and following the science of …
On 28 May 2020, the General Court of the European Union (“General Court”) handed down its judgment in Case 399/16 CK Telecoms UK Investments Ltd v European Commission (the “Judgment”), annulling the decision of the European …