Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP (JD Supra China)

For the first time since China’s Anti-Monopoly Law (AML) came into force in 2008, the government is proposing major changes to its centerpiece antitrust legislation. On January 2, 2020, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) published a draft amended Anti-Monopoly Law for public comments (Draft AML). The key changes in the Draft AML include proposals to...

The ongoing trade tensions between the U.S. and China have caused some U.S. companies to become increasingly concerned that the Chinese authorities may subject their local operations to closer scrutiny, leading these companies to conduct internal compliance reviews to minimize any risks to their businesses. For their part, U.S. authorities have stepped up scrutiny of Chinese companies, as...

In March 2018, China’s State Council announced the establishment of a unified market regulator, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), which now is responsible for all antitrust enforcement in China. Previously, antitrust enforcement in China was administered by three separate ministries, each responsible for different types of cases: the National Development and Reform Commission

China has introduced a plan to restructure some of its key governmental institutions, including the operations of its three antitrust enforcement agencies. The new scheme, announced in March 2018, for the first time centralizes control over competition regulation under a single administrator, ending a structure that saw enforcement responsibilities spread among several disparate and often...

In October 2017 at the Chinese Communist Party National Congress, President Xi Jinping consolidated his hold on power and cemented himself as what many commentators are calling the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong.

Three years ago, China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) introduced a simplified merger review procedure to reduce the review time for transactions that do not pose significant competitive or industrial policy concerns in China. Nevertheless, parties seeking to benefit from the simplified procedure must remain wary, as MOFCOM has become increasingly vigilant in exercising its authority as a...

In a time of shifting opinions on the benefits of globalization, China’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative (OBOR) offers an unexpected bright spot for multinational companies able and willing to participate in this infrastructure-building initiative. Unveiled by the Chinese government in 2013, OBOR seeks to connect — through roads, ports, railways, pipelines, airports, transnational grids and...

For the past few months, issuers of token sales or “initial coin offerings” (ICOs) have known that they were, to some extent, sailing in unchartered waters. Those waters have just gotten a bit murkier with an announcement by Chinese regulators that token sales are “an unauthorized and illegal public financing activity, which involves financial crimes such as the illegal distribution of financial...

On February 6, 2017, Skadden hosted the webinar “Minimizing Risks and Maximizing Opportunities in China-Latin America Investment.” Topics of discussion included the increasing importance of Chinese investment in Latin America, the nature and type of disputes that may arise from China-Latin America relationships and how parties can minimize the risks associated with such disputes through dispute...

Chinese investment in the U.S. insurance industry continued steadily in 2016, notwithstanding efforts by the Chinese government to impose new restrictions on outbound M&A. (See "Regional Focus: Asia.") Examples of such investments included China Minsheng Investment Corp.’s purchase of specialty insurer Sirius International Insurance Group from White Mountains Insurance Group and China Oceanwide...

Despite recent criticism from some quarters concerning the use of investment treaties and free trade agreements, the Chinese investment treaty system remains firmly in place. Since 1982, the People's Republic of China (PRC) has concluded over 100 investment treaties with a variety of countries, including numerous African, Latin American and Southeast Asian states. This reflects not only a "capital

A number of economic and political factors, both domestic and international, influenced M&A and capital markets activity worldwide in 2016. Skadden attorneys Christopher W. Betts, Will H. Cai, Z. Julie Gao, Bradley A. Klein, Steve Kwok and Haiping Li in Hong Kong; Nobuhisa Ishizuka and Kenji Taneda in Tokyo; and Jonathan B. Stone in Hong Kong and Rajeev P. Duggal and Parveet Singh Gandoak in...

The variable interest entity (VIE) structure has been around since the listing of Sina.com on the Nasdaq Stock Market in 2000. It enables companies to exercise control over operating entities and derive economic benefits from those entities through a series of contracts rather than direct legal ownership. The VIE structure has been used by technology and other companies, most recently in the...

In late 2011 and early 2012, China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) introduced a new and unique merger control remedy with far-reaching implications. In two separate decisions involving nearly simultaneous global acquisitions of hard disk drive (HDD) businesses, MOFCOM imposed conditions that, inter alia, strictly required the acquiring companies to maintain indefinitely the independence of the...

China’s Anti-Monopoly Law requires businesses to notify transactions to the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) for merger control review, so long as the parties meet certain revenue thresholds and the transaction involves a change of control or the establishment of a joint venture.

The liberalization of China’s financial markets continues at a rapid pace. For April and May 2015, the combined average daily value of trade on China's stock exchanges1 was around US$150 billion, compared to around US$40 billion for the New York Stock Exchange and under US$10 billion for the London Stock Exchange. This significant growth trade has been driven in large part by the adoption of the...

As the growth of the Chinese economy (and the real estate sector in particular) slows, we are seeing stress in an increasing number of issuers of offshore noninvestment-grade People’s Republic of China (PRC) bonds. It seems likely that some of these issuers will be unable to continue to meet scheduled payments of principal and interest and the debt may need to be restructured. Below, we discuss...

In January 2015, China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) released a discussion draft of the proposed Foreign Investment Law (Discussion Draft), soliciting comments from the public. The Discussion Draft is aimed to, upon its enactment, replace the existing laws regulating foreign investments in China with a uniform law and is expected to affect a wide range of foreign entities and investments in...

Over the past few years, the U.S. authorities have continued their aggressive stance toward corrupt activity in China; 2014 saw significantly increased enforcement efforts by Chinese authorities, both of local companies and multinationals doing business in China.

November 17, 2014, marked the first day of trading under the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect, a mutual market access platform that effectively opens the Hong Kong market to mainland Chinese investors. The Shanghai-HK Connect enables mainland Chinese investors to trade in securities listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEx) in renminbi (RMB) through broker members of the Shanghai Stock...

Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have played a significant role in the world's second-largest economy, with over 155,000 SOEs valued at approximately $17.4 trillion at the end of 2013 spanning almost every industry sector. Despite the tremendous success some of the SOEs have enjoyed, largely thanks to their monopolistic market positions and entry barriers for private sector competitors,...

The Electronic Intellectual Property Center of China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has released a draft “Template for Intellectual Property Policies in Industry Standardization Organizations” (the Draft Template), seeking public comments by January 30.

New regulations issued by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) of the People’s Republic of China (the PRC) became effective on 1 June 2014. These regulations (the Regulations) will have a significant effect on the ability of lenders to take, and borrowers to provide, cross-border guarantees and security for PRC-related financings.

On June 17, 2014, the Anti-Monopoly Bureau of China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) issued just the second prohibition decision in its enforcement history, striking down the proposed P3 Network shipping alliance that would have created a long-term vessel-sharing agreement among Denmark’s AP Møller-Maersk A/S (Maersk Line), Switzerland’s Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) and France’s CMA CGM.

China has recently taken two important steps to improve its merger control process: providing additional guidance on its new simplified merger procedures while promising publication of decisions penalizing firms for closing deals without first obtaining official approval.

Over the past several years, companies engaging in mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures have been subject to long and unpredictable competition reviews for transactions notified in China. Although China’s Anti-Monopoly Law (AML) prescribes an initial 30-calendar-day Phase I review period, similar to those found in other jurisdictions, in practice even straightforward transactions without...

Over the last two years, China has emerged as one of the most significant jurisdictions worldwide for antitrust and competition matters. Now more than ever, firms doing business in China or participating in major transactions impacting China’s interests must carefully plan and prepare to take account of Chinese competition policy. Chinese competition agencies now increasingly alter the timing to...

Companies contemplating global mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures should be aware that the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), China’s antitrust agency tasked with merger control, is increasingly imposing competition remedies exceeding those required by the European Commission, U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) or U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in the same transactions.