Articles and Updates

• Sawant Singh -

Close on the heels of the new consolidated FDI policy (which this column discussed last month), comes yet another regulatory change that is impacting deal-making in India with foreign money. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has, through a notification issued on 7 April and a circular dated 4 May, amended the manner in which cross-border share transfers and share issues are to be valued. We discuss below the valuation norms for unlisted companies. (For implications of these regulatory changes on M&A transactions,

• Saket Shukla -

April is normally a time when transactional lawyers look forward to breathing easy and recovering from year-end closings and attendant hectic times of March. But this new financial year, the government has kept us all busy with ample food for thought in the form of a new circular intended to be a definitive one-stop foreign direct investment (FDI) manual.

• Sawant Singh -

Globally, there exists a long list of fund houses which are so called “activist investors”. The “activism” is often a reference to either the changes in the management and operations of a company, which the fund houses would like to bring about, or the active participation by such funds in the key decisions of a company, through the exercise of their votes. The end objective of such activism has typically been to ensure that shareholders’ interests especially the minority) are protected and the highest

• Sawant Singh -

With the gradual liberalization of exchange control regulations in India during the 1990s, Indian corporates have had the ability to raise funds from global markets. A popular instrument, especially in the past few years, has been the foreign currency convertible bond (FCCB).

• Sawant Singh -

While most of the world was preparing for the holiday season, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), without much notice and publicity, released a draft Master Press Note on foreign direct investment in India late on 24 December 2009. The Master Press Note was open to comments from the public until 31 January. While not intended as an in-depth analysis, our column this month takes a look at this policy initiative and what it seeks to achieve.