United Kingdom: Debt Capital Markets

A human tragedy that caught my eye in the press was the death of Mike Lynch last year aboard his yacht.

The EU and UK prospectus regimes govern disclosure requirements for securities offered to the public and/or admitted to trading on a regulated market.

The significance of this topic for many clients arises because the UK is home to some of the largest and most significant commodity derivative markets in the world.

A recent decision of the Supreme Court affects the circumstances in which a lender bank will be put "on inquiry" in non-commercial loan transactions involving couples.

The decision demonstrates how a good faith change of position defence can shield recipients of mistaken payments from liability in unjust enrichment claims

For many Software as a Service (SaaS) businesses, maintaining rapid growth momentum in respective addressable markets is paramount.

Leveraged deals surged nearly 50%, fuelled by an uptick in LBO activity made possible by improving credit conditions. The number of refinancings also increased as private equity firms grappled with misalignment.

The UK's competition watchdog, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), has rarely been out of the news in recent months, mostly in relation to criticism of its approach to merger control, the decision by the UK Government to replace its Chair and the agency's promise in turn to enact root-and-branch reform.

On 23 January 2025, the FCA published its updated analysis of risks of money laundering through the capital markets (MLTM). This was followed shortly afterwards by a 'Dear CEO letter' to wholesale broker firms in which the FCA expresses the view that (despite improvements since 2019) some firms are not yet compliant in this area