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ESCROW IN M&A and VENTURE CAPITAL – AND OTHER USES

20th March 2024

WHAT IS ESCROW? WHY SHOULD YOU KNOW ABOUT IT? Escrow agreements are used where something is deposited with an independent third-party until certain conditions are fulfil...

INTERNATIONAL CONTRACTS – ENFORCEMENT BASICS

31st January 2024

COURT JUDGMENTS AND ARBITRATION AWARDS When you are negotiating an agreement, you always need to think about enforcing it if the other parties breach the contract - es...

M&A: UNDERSTANDING WARRANTIES AND DISCLOSURES

21st December 2023

This comes up in every M&A deal. Typical deal structure: the Buyer and Seller have discussions and sign an NDA; they sign a Letter of Intent/Term Sheet (it’s...

NEGOTIATING WITH DIFFERENT TYPES OF INVESTORS

21st September 2023

KEY POINTS ON THE NEGOTIATING BEHAVIOUR OF INVESTORS: • Funds: remember they are investing other people’s money. They will get a due diligence report from a...

POST M&A INTEGRATION DON'T LET TRADEMARKS LAPSE

22nd August 2023

This is a short story. The message sounds obvious when you hear the story but it wasn’t obvious to the company affected. One of the companies I advise sells eng...

NOTA DI CONVERSIONE FUTURA IN AZIONI - NOTA DI SPIEGAZIONE (INGLESE)

21st March 2023

The safe is a cool concept invented in Silicon Valley for start-ups raising seed finance. It simplifies things a lot and saves the company costs. In fact it’s simi...

WHAT IS A SAFE? HOW IS IT DIFFERENT FROM A CONVERTIBLE LOAN NOTE?

20th January 2023

SAFE STANDS FOR “SIMPLE AGREEMENT FOR FUTURE EQUITY”. The investor pays money into the company and his money converts into shares on certain events. SO H...

M&A: SELLING TO A COMPETITOR

20th December 2022

In many M&A and investment deals, the most likely buyer turns out to be a competitor. Often this can be a better option than a private equity investment. However there is...

TECH START UP SHAREHOLDERS AGREEMENT - CHECK-LIST

25th June 2022

Under Downloads you can see we’ve added a checklist for the shareholders agreement for a tech start up. Initially I was going to do a really simple checklist for...

WHY IS THERE A FREE SHAREHOLDERS AGREEMENT ON OUR WEBSITE?

31st March 2022

It’s simple – and this is going to be one of the shortest blogs I’ve done. This is aimed at founders of a business. Is it essential for a start-up...

DO STARTUPS NEED A SHAREHOLDERS AGREEMENT?

22nd December 2021

The answer is – yes. But growing companies often don’t have the budget and they focus on the business not the shareholders agreement, which is totally under...

LE POSSIBILITA’ PER I CREDITORI DI CITARE IN GIUDIZIO GLI AMMINISTRATORI SONO AUMENTATE

25th September 2020

Gli amministratori possono andare incontro a rilevanti responsabilità nei confronti dei creditori della società a seguito di un'importante decisione della Corte Sup...

IS VENTURE CAPITAL IN TROUBLE – REPAIRING BALANCE SHEETS

20th July 2020

It’s not a crisis but lots of venture capital companies are facing difficulties at the moment. Why: • Some investee companies are passing into other owne...

HOW TO USE E-SIGNATURES FOR CONTRACTS (Hong Kong)

10th June 2020

Is an e-signature valid in Hong Kong? What are the best tips for using e-signatures? Hong Kong’s Electronic Transactions Ordinance (ETO) permits e-signatures for...

PRIVATE EQUITY 2020 – IS VENTURE CAPITAL THE FUTURE?

15th February 2020

The Economist (weekly comment piece, 30th January 2020) highlighted the trend of more and more capital flowing into private markets. They published figures from 2019 show...

What is a SAFE?

15th August 2019

SAFE STANDS FOR “SIMPLE AGREEMENT FOR FUTURE EQUITY”. I often call it a convertible loan note where the debt has been stripped out. The convertible note ha...

COSA SI INTENDE PER CONVERTIBLE NOTE (OBBLIGAZIONE CONVERTIBILE) IN UN INVESTIMENTO INIZIALE?

1st June 2019

la convertible note è di solito lo strumento finanziario più popolare per gli investimenti “pre-series A”. A Hong Kong è utilizzato da molti investi...

TECH TEAMS LEAVING TO SET UP BUSINESS - HIDDEN TRAPS AND 7 TOP TIPS

14th January 2019

Tech teams leaving to set up in business – hidden traps and 7 top tips In October 2018 Bombardier sued Mitsubishi in the Seattle District Court for breach of co...

WHAT ARE THE DIRECTORS DUTIES IN A UTILITY TOKEN ICO?

20th December 2018

Notice: this note does not apply to security tokens. There is a higher standard of duties and much more regulatory oversight on security token issues. Also note that we a...

ICOS - WHAT’S A SECURITY TOKEN? WHAT’S THE RISK IF IT IS?

30th September 2018

In Hong Kong if the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) decide a token is a security token they will probably write to digital exchanges asking them to stop trading t...

JUST FOUR KEY POINTS TO UNDERSTAND ICOs AND IF THEY ARE REGULATED

18th June 2018

The booming world of blockchain token offerings is full of internet postings and myths so this blog is an attempt to explain ICOs in a way which all business people can u...

WHAT IS BLOCKCHAIN?

31st March 2018

• A record of transactions – how does it work? A block is a record of transactions (that could be applied in all sorts of sectors, such as medical data in a...

LETTERA DI INTENTI PARTE TERZA – SUGGERIMENTI PER RACCOGLIERE I TUOI PRIMI 1-5 MILIONI DI DOLLARI IN CAPITALE

31st January 2018

Di recente abbiamo imparato due (buone) lezioni da start-up che avevano incontrato dei problemi con i loro investitori. Niente sorprese Gli investitori odiano le sorp...

QUATTRO TIPICI ERRORI DA EVITARE COME AMMINISTRATORE DI UNA STARTUP

31st August 2017

La maggior parte degli amministratori di startup sono anche fondatori o azionisti, ma spesso commettono errori elementari, alcuni dei quali comportano delle responsabilit...

LETTERA D’INTENTI PARTE SECONDA

25th July 2017

Quanto segue si basa su un caso reale che si è verificato di recente a Hong Kong. Anche se può trovare applicazione pure in altri paesi. Una lettera d'intenti ha...

VALE LA PENA PREDISPORRE UNA LETTERA DI INTENTI?

27th March 2017

In generale, sì - ma ci sono alcune trappole che vanno evitate e ci sono alcuni accorgimenti che è opportuno adottare. Ha valore legale?  La si può pre...

I 5 PRINCIPALI SUGGERIMENTI IN TEMA DI ACCORDI DI RISERVATEZZA (NDA) - SONO UNA PERDITA DI TEMPO?

24th December 2016

In genere, no - ma occorre tenere conto dei limiti propri di un NDA quando si stanno rivelando informazioni riservate a un investitore o a un’acquirente o a un lic...

THE 3 TOP REASONS TO TAKE LOAN NOTES - WE SUGGEST CONVERTIBLE NOTES

16th November 2016

Here are the 3 top reasons: • Interest. Interest on loan notes is normally fixed and payable as a debt. Dividends on preference shares are commonly fixed, but b...

È POSSIBILE PAGARE AGLI AZIONISTI DIVIDENDI IN MISURA DIVERSA?

10th October 2016

Questa domanda viene posta di frequente. Il Consiglio di amministrazione o gli azionisti di controllo spesso chiedono se ciò sia possibile. In termini generali, seco...

QUALI SONI I PASSI NORMALI IN UNA FUSIONE ACQUISIZIONE?

13th March 2016

TRATTATIVE PRELIMINARI LETTERA DI SEGRETEZZA che include • l’accordo dell’ acquirente di non rivelare le informazioni ricevute dal venditore â�...

AVIATION SECTOR INVESTMENTS – WHAT SPECIAL DUE DILIGENCE IS NECESSARY?

20th January 2016

Private equity in the aviation sector is very active. If you know your industry, paying for a full form professional written report may not be essential. This sounds radi...

WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN A BUSINESS ANGEL AND A PRIVATE EQUITY INVESTOR?

10th November 2015

There can be huge differences between angel investors and the many types of private equity investor. Rather than get technical re senior debt, mezzanine, preference share...

WE ARE DOING AN ASIAN CORPORATE JOINT VENTURE: WHAT LAW CAN WE USE?

1st October 2015

Where is the business going to operate? In Asia, it is quite likely the operating company is going to be in China or a developing country. Now, you could write your JV Ag...

PAGARE PER UN “DUE DILIGENCE REPORT”, VALE LA PENA O NO?

15th August 2015

Una due diligence è importante, ma se conosci bene il tuo settore, forse pagare un professionista per una due diligence dettagliata non è essenziale. Ciò può...

LE COSE DA FARE E DA NON FARE NELLE FUSIONI ACQUISIZIONI

30th June 2015

DA FARE – per gli Acquirenti • Fare firmare una lettera d’Intenti per vincolare il venditore • Ottenere l’esclusività (per impedire...

UN CONTRATTO DI JOINT VENTURE È DI PER SÉ SUFFICIENTE?

10th April 2015

Un contratto di joint venture non basta. Si può incorrere in non pochi problemi qualora lo Statuto della propria Joint Venture non corrisponda al patto parasociale....

IL MIO INVESTITORE DICE DI ESSERE CONTENTO SIA CON AZIONI PREFERENZIALI SIA CON “LOAN NOTES” – C’È UNA GRANDE DIFFERENZA?

15th March 2015

Sí la differenza è grande – e può influenzare molto il percentuale del capitale che l’investitore possederà in tua società. Ci sono molte pos...

NUOVA LEGGE SULLE SOCIETA’ DI HONG KONG – AMMINISTRATORI

3rd March 2014

VISIONE D’INSIEME: la nuova legge e’ entrata in vigore il 3 marzo 2014. Consiste in una riscrittura del Diritto Societario di Hong Kong. Essa e’ sus...