Your quoted company legal news update - July 2015
Published on 30th Jul 2015
Welcome to the latest edition of Osborne Clarke’s quoted company legal and regulatory news update.
We hope that you find it interesting. If you would like to discuss any of the content, or have a subject that you would like us to cover in the next (September) edition, please let one of us know. Our contact details are set out below.
Best regards,
Jon King, Mark Wesker, Tom Harvey and Nick Thody
Cyber risks: the duties of directors and impact on corporate finance transactions
In and out of the glare of media attention, companies of all sizes are grappling with the issues posed by cyber threats, whether to the integrity of the company’s own confidential information, its systems and trade secrets or to the client/customer data that it holds.
With both information technology and those seeking to exploit its weaknesses becoming ever more sophisticated, what role does the law require directors to play in ensuring that their company is protected from cyber threats? And what should you do if your organisation is targeted?
“Creating an equity culture”: TheCityUK looks at ways of promoting SME access to the capital markets
TheCityUK – the body set up in 2010 to promote the UK financial and professional services industries – has published its report on access to the capital markets for the SME sector.
Capital markets currently play a relatively small role in SME financing, with 70% of finance coming from bank loans. The report looks at ways to reduce SMEs’ dependence on bank loans at a time when the ability (and willingness) of banks to lend is still constrained, and at how to help SMEs raise capital in other ways more quickly and cheaply.
Mandatory gender pay gap reporting: what will it mean for your organisation?
The Government has issued its much anticipated consultation document Closing the Gender Pay Gap which will help shape the new statutory requirement for employers with 250 or more employees to disclose any gender pay gap in their organisation. The consultation also includes some broader questions on the issue of gender pay equality, recognising that gender pay differences will not be magically resolved by a new disclosure regime.
Whilst much of the detail is still up in the air and definitive regulation is not expected until mid-2016, organisations will need to start planning for the impact of these new rules. We look at the key themes set out in the consultation to see what the scope of those new rules is likely to be.
Modern Slavery Act: what quoted companies need to know about the new disclosure requirements
Many quoted companies will think that terms such as “modern slavery” and “trafficking” are not relevant to their business. But new regulations expected to come into force in October 2015 will require larger companies to disclose annually whether or not steps are being taken to ensure that human trafficking and slavery are not taking place in any part of their business or supply chains – chains which are often long and complex and are frequently located thousands of miles away.
STOP PRESS: The Government yesterday published a summary of responses to its consultation paper on the implementation of the Modern Slavery Act. In the summary, the Government has indicated that it will set the annual turnover threshold that will make companies subject to the new disclosure requirement at £36 million – the lowest level proposed in the consultation paper.
Smart cities in Europe
We recently released the first of a series of white papers on smart cities.
Cities need innovative solutions to help meet the long-term challenges arising from urbanisation. But for cities to justify investment in smart technology, it needs to have been proven at scale and delivered tangible benefits. Some innovative technology is being developed by early-stage companies that don’t have the funding to finance a large-scale demonstration of their technology. This is where a funding gap emerges – and where interesting opportunities for collaboration between larger, listed companies and those early-stage companies arise.
Our report looks at the structure, participants and funding models of existing smart city demonstration projects. It analyses why these were successful, discusses why more demonstration projects are not being launched and provides insights on what might be done to encourage more.
Click here to download your copy of the report.
Seen elsewhere
- If elected US president, will Hillary Clinton attempt to introduce sliding capital gains tax rates to encourage “long-termism” and combat “quarterly capitalism”? Link (The New York Times)
- Who owns a company? A surprisingly complex question, discussed by Andrew Haldane, Chief Economist at the Bank of England. Link (The Bank of England)
- The World Economic Forum published a comprehensive paper on “The future of financial services”. Link (WEF)
