In this title leading experts in the field of international arbitration provide legal and practical guidance on the key types of dispute likely to arise from M&A transactions (eg, warranty claims, shareholder disputes, claims relating to completion accounts), and offer procedural and tactical tips for arbitration arising from them. The content also covers the fundamental questions of arbitrability, confidentiality, freedom to choose the governing law (and questions of mandatory law) and enforceability in 20 key jurisdictions.
Navigate M&A accounting arbitrations with insider perspective M&A Disputes takes you inside the dispute resolution process to help you put together the many "moving parts" necessary to obtain a successful outcome. With deep insight from experts in the field—including valuable advice from the arbitrator's perspective—this book guides you through the entire process to explore the variables at work. The high volume of M&A transactions makes post-closing price adjustment provisions and accounting arbitrations a critical part of doing business. Yet, the field is opaque to non-practitioners and important issues can be easily misunderstood without specific knowledge and experience. A resulting award can make or break a transaction; an intimate understanding of the process's inner working can help you plan your position to the greatest advantage. This book explores the many factors that that contribute to a successful resolution across the entire transaction life cycle from contract negotiation through the dispute phase including due diligence, determination of the target net working capital, conception and closing of the purchase agreement, post-closing negotiation and dispute resolution, the impact of accounting practices, guidance, and documentation as well as relevant auditing concepts, and various facts and circumstances surrounding the target business and the transaction that need to be considered. M&A volume remains high and continues to result in large numbers of current and future post-closing M&A disputes. Clients rely on their attorneys and advisers to guide them through the process and counsel them toward a positive outcome. Those professionals will find that M&A accounting arbitrations carry a range of distinctions that require a specialized knowledge base to navigate correctly. This book provides real-world guidance from experts in the field, with invaluable insight for every stage of the process. Walk through the entire dispute resolution process from arbitrator selection through final award Understand how M&A agreement provisions impact the awarded amount as well as the options available to limit the scope of potential disputes and the "gaming" of the post-closing process by the counterparty Understand the nature of accounting estimates and guidance, their interaction with accounting arbitrations, and how to synthesize facts, circumstances, and GAAP into a persuasive argument to present to the accounting arbitrator Get situation-specific advice for different types of transactions Learn practitioner "dos" and "don'ts" from the arbitrator's perspective M&A Disputes provides transaction parties and their representatives an inside view at the transaction and commonly disputed items through the eyes of the arbitrator to provide them with uniquely valuable insight. In addition to being an invaluable tool for practitioners appearing before an accounting arbitrator, M&A Disputes also provides advice to would-be and experienced arbitrators alike to successfully resolve disputes that can be significant and complex.
In the course of a merger and acquisition (M&A) transaction, the principals and their advisors face a series of decisions, often against the backdrop of an unrealistic deadline, imperfect information and a shrewd other side. In making these decisions, they have to deal with complex technical matters at the intersection of disciplines, including accounting, law, taxation, corporate finance, operations, environmental and strategy. It is not always possible during the negotiations to take a step back and contemplate issues likely to arise before or after completion that may result in a dispute or to address or mitigate risks. It is therefore easy in these highly charged circumstances to create outcomes that end up in legal disputes. A sound understanding of the completion mechanism including the basis and measurement of individual purchase price adjustments is important to negotiate good deals and avoid disputes. This book provides an in-depth discussion of the completion mechanism, including key arguments for or against individual deductions or adjustments. This can be helpful in negotiations. It also provides diagnostic tools and many recommendations that can help avoid disputes. If a dispute has occurred, it discusses how it can be resolved as well as the conceptual basis and practical approaches to the measurement of damages. The book deals with numerous matters that need to be addressed during M&A negotiations and can lead to post-M&A dissonance, including the following: - the equity bridge: from fi rm value to the purchase price for the equity; - closing conditions, the closing process and the completion accounts; - an in-depth discussion of individual purchase price adjustments from factoring to pensions and from leases to the working capital reference value; - material adverse change clauses; - aspects of locked box transactions, including the interest over the locked box period; - how to structure earn-outs to avoid disputes; - red flags for fraud; - damages valuation in M&A disputes; and - lessons learned on how to avoid or deal with disputes. The author analyses a large number of actual post-M&A disputes as a lens to bring into focus precisely where things go wrong in practice. He then sets out practical solutions to the problems dealmakers face, how to negotiate individual price adjustments, and lessons learned from disputes. This book will be useful to M&A practitioners, be they in-house counsel, private equity, sovereign wealth funds, international arbitration centres or other players, as well as the investment bankers, accountants and the professionals who advise them. It will also prove to be of great value to those who deal with post-M&A disputes – judges, arbitrators and litigators – and legal academics interested in the M&A field.
This practical guide, edited by Robbie McLaren at Latham & Watkins, features contributions by specialists on subjects linked to the structuring and execution of carve-out transactions and provides an invaluable insight into the legal, regulatory and practical elements in play. Topics include documentary provisions, IP transfers, transitional services, employment risks, antitrust concerns and financing acquisitions.
This book provides a clear understanding of the nuts and bolts of valuation approaches for business investments, including market, income and asset-based methods. It reviews tools that arbitrators may employ to reach their final compensation assessment on a principled basis. The bookands many practical recommendations explore the decision making processes entailed in three central aspects of the arbitratorands role: and advance planning to enhance understanding of expert valuation evidence; and identification of andapples-to-orangesand miscomparisons; and and recognition of the true comparability between the business at issue and other examples offered in the expert evidence. The presentation focuses not only on the legal standards applicable to the valuation (full or adequate compensation, reparations, restitution, actual loss, fair market value, fair or reasonably equivalent value, lost profits, etc.), but also on the informed judgment and reasonableness that must enter into the process of weighing the facts of each case and determining its aggregate significance. The book considers common valuation methods like discounted cash flows, adjusted present values, capitalized cash flows, adjusted book values and comparable sales and transactions. Additionally, it addresses means for arbitrators to assess expert valuation evidence in complex business investment disputes. andquot;Best book 2008 of the OGEMID awards!andquot;
The Yearbook offers an important forum for legal practitioners to address and compare practical legal issues of direct interest to their areas of specialisation. Each volume features a comprehensive range of articles written for and by leading practitioners and advisers working within the international business sector. This eighteenth volume contains chapters on: the law relating to banking competition dispute settlement foreign investment and secured transactions general commercial issues facing international businesses the various laws and regulations governing investment and the operating of companies in foreign countries (which should be of great interest to anyone involved with the business of multi-jurisdictional organizations.) banking regulations and the need to obtain security over transactions Other important issues covered in the general section of this volume are those of product safety, restraint of trade, clauses in employment contracts and the remedies available to foreign sellers of goods. All the above topics contribute to making this volume of the Yearbook a valuable tool for international legal practitioners and their clients.
The Arbitration of International Intellectual Property Disputes, which is designed not only for arbitration counsel and arbitrators but also for in-house counsel and transactional lawyers, provides a thorough guide to the use of arbitration to resolve these disputes. Both practical as well as scholarly, it starts by exploring how and why arbitration can provide the best way to resolve these disputes and how to draft an effective arbitration provision. It then covers the principal unique issues which can arise in the arbitration itself, from choosing the tribunal through confidentiality, discovery, validity determinations, choice of law, provisional and final remedies and enforceability. With the world more and more dependent upon technology of all types, the continued and growing importance of intellectual property cannot be understated. There has been, and will continue to be, an accompanying explosion in the number and complexity of transactions in which intellectual property is a critical, if not the critical, element. Many of these transactions cross national boundaries; as do the disputes which inevitably arise from them. But international intellectual property disputes present complexities not encountered in either intellectual property disputes which are confined to one country or other international commercial disputes. The Arbitration of International Intellectual Property Disputes will serve as a handy reference and guide for navigating through the complex maze of intellectual property and arbitration.
Drawing on a large and varied body of judicial and arbitral case law, this book provides a comprehensive, original, and up-to-date account of the role of equity in international law.
This book presents an overview of online arbitration and electronic contracting worldwide, examining their national and international contexts, and assessing their ongoing relevance. It offers solutions to the salient challenges facing both online arbitration and electronic contracting, dealing firstâ "hand with online arbitration as an online dispute resolution technique for solving both traditional and electronic commerce disputes that may arise out of the breach of contractual obligations in international commercial contracts, while also comparing between common law and civil law countries. In the theory of law, this book analyses the international legal framework that regulates eâ "commerce, and its impact on electronic contracting, including Model Laws and International Conventions such as the Model Law on Electronic Commerce of 1996 and the Electronic Communications Convention of 2005. It also investigates whether the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods of 1980 â ~The CISGâ (TM) applies to eâ "commerce contracts. In addition, it extensively examines the possibility for the enforcement of online arbitration agreements and online arbitral awards under the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards of 1958. Regarding the practice of law, the volume examines how national courts apply both national laws and the New York Convention of 1958 when dealing with the enforcement of online arbitration agreements, and whether courts apply the provisions of national laws of arbitration liberally. As such, it encourages the adoption of a more liberal judicial regime in favour of the enforcement of online arbitral awards and online arbitration agreements in national courts. This book represents a valuable resource for academics, arbitrators, practicing lawyers, corporate counsels, law students, researchers, and professionals who are willing to solve their crossâ "border commercial disputes through online arbitration.
