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Global rules on foreign direct investment (FDI)
Cross-border acquisitions and investments increasingly trigger foreign direct investment (FDI) screening requirements.
Global | Publication | February 2018
Concerns regarding resource nationalism reforms are a regular topic within the mining industry and international mining conferences, such as the African Mining INDABA currently ongoing in Cape Town, South Africa, are often the perfect venue for these concerns to be openly expressed and discussed.
Over the past few years, several African countries have substantially overhauled their mining laws, although some have worked harder at affording stability protection to those miners that had believed in their country (often during difficult times) and massively invested to develop world-class mining projects.
Whilst Tanzania’s recent legislative changes will be much discussed this year, by voting a major revision to its mining code on 27 January 2018, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Parliament has positioned the DRC centre stage on this subject.
The DRC mining code revision process which started in 2012, some 10 years after the Code was originally adopted, has finally led to a bill that was approved by both houses on 27 of January 2018.
The bill is ambitious and challenging.
The text is awaiting some “tidying up” before being put to President Kabila for promulgation. Such clarification would be useful as several provisions seem at this stage unpractical, unclear or possibly inconsistent. Mining companies and investors will also be concerned about the economic and practical impacts of the changes. If promulgated ‘as is’ the bill will not only increase future investors’ obligations but might also be read as immediately impacting current operations and existing rights.
Some of the key changes to the mining code would include:
These are only a few of the changes which the revision is introducing. Given its complexity, further analysis of the text and its impact on individual operations will be needed. However, to the legal professionals who have followed the evolution, over the past 10 years, of the mining legislative and contractual framework in Africa’ major mining hubs, it seems already clear that significant efforts on the part of the Government, mining companies, financiers and their respective advisors will be necessary to address the consequences of this bill if it is implemented in its current state.
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Cross-border acquisitions and investments increasingly trigger foreign direct investment (FDI) screening requirements.
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On February 2, 2024, the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union confirmed that the Committee of Permanent Representatives had signed the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Regulation, referred to as the AI Act. Approval by the EU Parliament followed on 13 March 2024, and the AI Act is likely to appear in the EU’s Official Journal around May 2024. The AI Act aims to establish a stringent legal framework governing the development, marketing, and utilisation of artificial intelligence within the region, thereby marking a significant advancement in the regulation of this burgeoning domain.
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The private credit market and direct lending have grown and diversified immensely in the past decade, offering alternative sources and terms of debt compared to those historically provided by the syndicated leveraged loan and public issuance markets. Consequently, they are fast becoming pivotal components in the capital ecosystem, so much so that the Bank of England consider that the private credit market is currently responsible for approximately $1.8 trillion of debt issuance, which is four times its size in 2015. This growth has been particularly pronounced in Europe and the US but there has also been significant activity in Asia.
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