Corporate
The Corporate team acted on the conversion of an investment group with a focus on small capital buyouts and renewable energy projects. The group wished to create a partnership culture in its business whilst retaining flexibility. The team worked with the client to identify an appropriate structure before undertaking the conversion. The transaction also included us working with the client to provide specific advice and presentations to employees and potential members to explain the legal and tax implications of the proposed change to limited liability partnership status.
Litigation
The Litigation team acted for the administrator of a Swedish based insurer in respect of a number of commercial claims arising from its administration; in particular, the firm advised the company in respect of Companies Act and Insolvency Act claims against group companies concerning dividend payments made on behalf of the UK entity prior to its administration.
Real estate
The Real Estate team acts as the trusted legal adviser for a privately owned national plant hire group together with the Corporate and Banking teams. They advise on the restructuring and transfer of ownership of shares, the purchase of new operational sites, variations of option agreements, the granting of new leases and real estate due diligence on share purchase agreements
Intellectual property
The Intellectual Property team analysed ownership of two of the leading brands for a well known beverages group, focussing in particular on beneficial interests in the brands and ownership of international and local goodwill within a multi-national group structure. The purpose of the review was to understand which group companies could claim an economic interest in the brands prior to transforming the group's operating model. The work required a detailed analysis of how different group members used and managed the brands and an understanding of the complex technical issues relating to the beneficial ownership of trade marks and goodwill.
Company secretarial
The Company Secretarial team looks after global compliance work for a Belgian international manufacturing company consisting of 140 entities across 40 countries. The team coordinates the differing compliance obligations across all of the countries, coordinated from a central London hub.
Immigration
The Immigration team acted for a multi-national bank to complete an audit of their existing HR policies and processes in light of the new immigration points based system. It was critical to the client to attain a sponsorship licence within a very short time frame and partner Nadine Owen led a team of immigration and HR experts to ensure that this was secured. Work involved a detailed review of HR processes in each of the banks separate business units and an audit of personnel files. Solicitor Ray Rackham has since been seconded to the client to assist them with the set-up of a central in-house immigration unit.
In the epic battle for smartphone dominance among Asian device makers, Samsung is on top with a record quarterly profit, while HTC faced a major blow in the holiday quarter.
Both companies reported their fourth quarter earnings today, but the results couldn’t be more different. Samsung’s operating profit jumped 75 percent to $4.5 billion in the last quarter, while HTC’s net income dropped 26 percent to $364 million.
Samsung admits that its earnings saw a spike from the $1.38 billion sale of its hard drive business to Seagate, but the company still managed to ship around 32 million smartphones during the quarter, according to estimates by Dongbu Securities. (The numbers aren’t too surprising, since Samsung toppled Apple as the world’s top smartphone maker back in October.) Facing stiff competition from both Samsung and Apple this season, HTC’s smartphone shipments fell to 10 million units during last quarter and are estimated to fall further to 8.5 million units this quarter.
The big difference for the two companies may be in how they position their flagship smartphones. Samsung launched its Galaxy S II line last year to much anticipation. All of the phones feature the same basic hardware, albeit with some minor differences in screen size and features. HTC, meanwhile, announced several new high-end phones during 2011, and it was sometimes unclear how they were different.
If a phone nerd like myself has trouble keeping track of HTC’s multitude of smartphone models, I don’t think a regular consumer would have much of a chance. By removing the complication of choice, Samsung can more clearly direct consumers to its new models.
Overall, Samsung said it sold over 300 million phones — including both smartphones and low-end devices — in 2011.
http://www.legal500.com/firms/12042-pricewaterhousecoopers-legal-llp/16090-kiev
