Corporate news

22/12/2009 - Jirehouse Capital v. Beller - correspondence headed "without prejudice and subject to contract"

The main question for the court to determine in a claim for alleged fraud was whether an action had been settled in pre-trial negotations despite emails being marked "without prejudice and subject to contract".
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30/11/2009 - Schemes of Arrangement

(1) Is Lehman Brothers testing the ground?

In recent years the corporate world has seen a substantial increase in the use of schemes of arrangements (under Part 26 of the Companies Act 2006) both in solvent and insolvent cases. The legislation in this area has remained untouched for the best part of a hundred years but the world of business has changed dramatically in that period, resulting in the courts being asked to opine on issues which were far from contemplation at the time of the legislation.
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23/11/2009 - Record fine imposed by LSE on AIM company (November 2009)

The London Stock Exchange recently imposed hefty sanctions - a public censure and record £600,000 fine - on Regal Petroleum plc ("Regal"), an AIM listed company, for acting in serious breach of the AIM Rules.
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27/05/2009 - Are Signing Meetings Back?

A recent case, R (on the Application of Mercury Tax Group Limited and another) v. HMRC (the "Mercury Tax Case"), has brought into focus for lawyers the requirement that documents be executed correctly - indeed the decision has caused some lawyers to move back to the traditional "signing meeting" and away from recent trends to exchange and/or complete transactions electronically.
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18/02/2009 - Market Abuse - FSA Final Notice in Relation to Darwin Clifton (Mr Clifton) and Byron Holdings Limited (Byron)

The FSA has, under a Final Notice, issued fines to Mr Clifton and to Byron in relation to their actions between 19 November 2007 and 8 February 2008 (Relevant Period).
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18/02/2009 - Insider Trading - FSA "Tightening Up" Enforcement

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) is to bring a prosecution against Malcolm Calvert, a former trader and partner at Cazenove, for insider trading. Mr Calvert retired from Cazenove in 2000. The offences he is charged with are alleged to have taken place between 2003 and 2005 and relate to allegations that Mr Calvert acquired shares on 12 different occasions in certain companies which he was aware were variously involved in negotiations relating to management buy outs, takeovers and mergers.
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18/02/2009 - A Brief Update on Short Selling Restrictions

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has recently published a discussion paper on short selling (DP09/01). The background to this discussion paper was the introduction (on 18 September 2008) of (much publicised) measures prohibiting the active creation or increase of net short positions in the stocks of UK financial sector companies. There were, in addition to the prohibition, certain disclosure requirements in relation to net short positions in the stocks of UK financial sector companies.
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