Loan facilities and bond loans usually include financial covenants, which are financial metrics the borrower/issuer need to comply with during the term of the financing agreement. The Norwegian market is dominated by maintenance covenants, which means the covenants must be complied with at all times. Over the course of a few months, geopolitical unrest, high inflation and prolonged supply chain issues have led central banks to increase interest rates and lenders to increase their risk margins ...
The Advocate General’s Opinion in Case C-449/21Towercast rendered on 13 October is interesting reading in particular in the context of «killer acquisitions». The dispute in the main proceedings before Cour d’appel de Paris concerns the question as to a supplementary or «gap-closing» application of Article 102 TFEU in relation to the national rules on merger control ...
The 2022 Chambers Global Practice Guide: Oil & Gas Law and Practice The Simonsen Vogt Wiig Oil & Gas team, has contributed to the Chambers 2022 Global Practice Guide: Oil & Gas Law and Practice by writing the Norway chapter. It describes the legal framework for the upstream petroleum sector in Norway in addition to the most important developments of the framework during the past year ...
Resource rent tax on aquaculture The government proposes to introduce a resource rent tax on aquaculture from 1st of January 2023. The proposal will be circulated for consultation today with a deadline of 3rd of January 2023. The proposal includes a resource rent tax with an effective rate of 40% applicable to the production of salmon, trout, and rainbow trout. The proposal includes a tax-free allowance of between 4,000 and 5,000 tonnes ...
One of the proposals set out in the Green Paper concerns an investment obligation for streaming services. According to the proposal, streaming services are required to either invest directly in Norwegian films and series, or, if the services do not invest sufficiently in Norwegian content, contribute to the financing of such productions through financial contributions to the Norwegian Film Fund ...
The material issue of the case, in which the procedural question arose, was whether two decisions by the Alver Municipality regarding property tax for «Mongstad kraftvarmeverk» and «Mongstad raffineri» owned by Equinor were lawful. In order to value the properties, the municipality had engaged an appraiser. Now, before the case is to be decided by the High Court, the parties disagreed about whether the appraiser should be considered an expert witness or not ...
Introduction In order to enforce a claim that is in default and overdue, there must be either a so-called general basis for enforcement (judgment, in-court settlement, etc.) or a special basis for enforcement. Special bases for enforcement will vary depending on the asset that needs to be realised ...
Nelfo is a national trade association for electro, IT, electronic communications, system integrators, and lift companies in Norway. The main point addressed in the complaint to ESA was the allegation that the municipality had overcompensated companies within the BKK Group for maintaining and operating street lights along municipal public roads ...
Merger control is an integral part of competition law. The Norwegian Competition Authority (NCA) enforces the Norwegian merger control rules. Notification to the NCA is compulsory before closing and implementing all mergers and acquisitions that bring about a structural «change of control» in the market and exceed the national turnover thresholds ...
From the legislator, it is relevant to draw attention to the new rules on remote court sessions and remote examination. The rules are based on the principle that court proceedings in Norway shall take place in a meeting where the participants are physically present. However, the preparatory works maintains that it’s time to make these regulations more flexible, to ensure appropriate, modern and efficient court proceedings ...
Simonsen Vogt Wiig has lately experienced an exceptional increase in new transactions within the offshore supply market. The traditional corporate lending, real estate and shipping markets have also stayed strong with a high volume of transactions with both banks and an increasing number of alternative project-based funding sources ...
Morten V. Meyer is specialised within M&A, contract law, real estate and tax law. His clients are from a wide range of industries. He has extensive experience with reorganisations and with assisting buyers and sellers with the sale and purchase of shares and businesses. In addition, Morten holds a real estate agent insurance and assists buyers and sellers of real estate in all steps of the process, including as settlement manager ...
Camilla Flatum is specialised within shipping transactions and with ship- and bond financing. She has extensive experience from the shipping sector, assisting both owners, brokers, and financial institutions. Camilla also advises clients within the aviation sector, in financing matters especially. She has been associated with Simonsen Vogt Wiig since 2006, having previously worked for Nordic Trustee AS og Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB ...
Prior to the entry into force of the FDI Screening Regulation on 11 October 2020, there was no EU-wide formalized cooperation among the Member States and the European Commission on these matters. In the EU, the European Commission’s strong expectation is that all 27 EU Member States will put national FDI screening mechanisms in place. A national screening mechanism in all 27 Member States serves to safeguard all individual Member States against potentially risky foreign investments ...
The full-text judgement in English has not yet been released, but the press release with a summary of the judgement and its result can be accessed here. The case concerns an action brought by Poland seeking annulment of Article 17 of Directive (EU) 2019/790 on Copyright in the Digital Single Market ...
Dramatic changes to energy supply security driven by geopolitical upheaval The EU energy transition is aimed at weaning Europe of its fossil fuel dependence and to enable Europe to reach climate emissions reduction targets. For the last 100 years, energy consumption other than transportation has been supplied almost entirely by hydropower. Norway in later years has been actively reducing its dependence on fossil fuel for road transport, costal shipping and the offshore supply fleet ...
General information about legal enforcement Legal enforcement involves the securing and collection of monetary claims (and other claims) via the enforcement authorities. The general rules are set down in the Enforcement Act. The act sets out the conditions for securing and enforced settlement of monetary claims and governs the approach that must be taken in connection with this ...
A huge number of global and national initiatives have been made to appropriately handle sustainability challenges, including the European Green Deal and the relating Taxonomy. Both mandatory regulations and voluntary principles have been (and will continue to be) initiated and implemented, to ensure or encourage that ESG considerations also are taken into account with respect to financing ...
During the US President’s visit to Brussels, President Biden and President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, stated on Friday 25 March that the parties have agreed on the main principles of a new agreement on the protection of personal data transferred to the United States. While a concrete agreement text has not yet been published, the US White House has published a Fact Sheet explaining the key principles to be expected in the final framework ...
Sustainability is a high priority for Simonsen Vogt Wiig (SVW), both for our own business and in our service offerings for customers. SVW have been certified as an Environmental Lighthouse («Miljøfyrtårn») for several years, and diversity and sustainability are among our key focus areas. In addition to working actively with defined sustainability goals internally, we advise on and deliver digital solutions within ESG, sustainability and the EU taxonomy ...
Has the company an updated overview of current processing in 2022? The companies must have an overview of their processing activities, and it is important that this is up to date ...
This year we also have four new individual lawyer rankings; Thomas Olsen, Band 1 and Malin Tønseth, Band 2 (TMT: Data Protection), Mathias Teir, Up & Coming (Corporate/M&A) and Sunniva Kinsella, Up & Coming (Banking and Finance). We are also very grateful that Tor Stokke and Gøran Mjelde Aarvik have strengthen their individual rankings with respectively Band 2 (TMT: Information Technology) and Band 3 (Real Estate) ...
The word on the street is that everybody wants an ERP system, but no one wants to use it. Or rather, no one will use it the way it has been set up as a standard solution. People in general do not like changes. Therefore, the ERP system must first be adapted so that the organisation can work in the same way as it did before. Only then will the organisation be willing to use it. Present ERP systems are better and more mature compared to the ERP systems only a few years ago ...
Any person will be given the right to demand information from enterprises affected by the Transparency Act It follows from the Transparency Act, Section 6, first paragraph, that any person has the right to information from an enterprise regarding how the enterprise addresses actual and potential adverse impacts according to the Section 4 of the Act ...
The Chambers Global Guide ranks law firms and lawyers in more than 200 jurisdictions in selected disciplines. All subject areas are part of Chambers Europe, published in March. SVW is ranked within Banking and Finance, Corporate M&A, Oil and Gas, Dispute Resolution, and International & Cross Border Capabilities. SVW has two new lawyers entering the rankings, Sunniva Kinsella and Mathias Teir, as up and coming, as well as defending last year’s placements ...
