Special Purpose Acquisition Companies, or SPACs, are all the rage at the moment. In 2020, SPACs raised $83 billion in proceeds from their IPOs and already in the first quarter of 2021 they raised $88 billion. This is big money and many companies, particularly offshore companies, are keen on being acquired by an SPAC as [...]
by Steven Jacob, Foreign Associate Last week I examined the four types of e-commerce websites that are allowed to operate in Vietnam (see Some Issues on E-Commerce in Vietnam). For each type, there is either a notification or registration requirement before the website can commence operations. This week I wanted to discuss the requirements for [...]
by Steven Jacob, Foreign Associate Looking at my list of potential blog topics, I found the issue of bribery remaining from a time before I began to focus primarily on tech-related issues. When I was in Laos we were very aware of this issue. As a foreign-invested endeavor, everything that might involve our home government--which [...]
by Steven Jacob, Foreign Associate Recently, I came across an update that referred to an official letter clarifying tax issues as relates to foreign e-commerce providers. I'll discuss it in more depth in a bit, but in essence, it said that foreign e-commerce providers will be treated like all foreign service providers for purposes of [...]
Earlier this month in a report by Bloomberg (here) and elsewhere the rumors seemed confirmed that Singapore's Grab and Indonesia's Gojek were in discussions anticipating a merger. While neither company is incorporated nor headquartered in Vietnam, they both have subsidiaries and substantial business in the country and their merger at an international level will have [...]
Ever since the stock exchange opened in the late 1990s, the procedures for private share placement in Vietnam have been divided between public companies and privately held companies. For publicly held companies the process has always been somewhat onerous in an effort to dissuade them from conducting private share placements. It has always, however, been [...]
Last week, here, I wrote about various strategies for restructuring debt. One of those--specifically for businesses--involved a court ordered restructuring as part of the bankruptcy procedures. This week I want to examine that process in more detail. Though instead of going through the entire process I'm going to highlight bits and pieces that are important [...]
Recently, we prepared a long chapter on employment law issues in Vietnam. One of the questions we addressed involved legal protections for whistleblowers--employees or individuals who reported instances, specifically, of harassment in the workplace, but also of other legal violations committed by their employer. Vietnam's employment law does not provide for whistleblower protections and, except [...]
On 17 June 2020, Vietnam's National Assembly passed a new law on investment. The new law offers some new approaches to investment--both domestic and foreign--in the country and broaches new territory for encouraging and regulating the sector. As I'm looking at M&A recently, I thought I would discuss two of the major developments in the [...]
As we have just celebrated the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the United States and Vietnam, I thought it would be a good opportunity to review the procedures and requirements for Vietnamese investors seeking to invest overseas. This is more complicated than one might expect—particularly in light of the need to obtain FOREX to [...]