Digital Assets Report

 SAFE HAVEN: finding opportunity in volatile markets

 
As Greece teeters on the edge of bankruptcy, and overall risks to eurozone financial stability increase considerably, investors have been caught in a headwind.
 
Banks with exposure to European sovereign debt are facing higher borrowing costs, while the economies of countries with strong trade links to Europe are being severely impacted. Asia will not escape the contagion. China and India, the region’s two brightest performing economies, were already in slowdown mode before the eurozone debt crisis gathered momentum. Both jurisdictions have huge trade exposure to Europe.
 
With uncertainty surrounding the eurozone generally, and eurozone banks in particular, the global financial outlook is likely to remain persistently volatile for some time to come.
 
Investors are seeking shelter, and the focus of the world’s financial institutions is firmly on growth economies – not just as an area of growth, but now as sources of capital in their own right.
 
The jurisdictions of the Southeast Asian region are no longer discussed by financial institutions in terms of their potential. Such institutions now fundamentally depend on these markets as sources of business and of capital. The launch of Asialaw’s inaugural Southeast Asia In-house Counsel Summit is therefore extremely timely.
 
Following the success of Asialaw’s well-established annual Asia-Pacific In-house Counsel Summit in Hong Kong, the Southeast Asia Summit in Singapore will tackle a range of issues pertinent to the daily lives of corporate counsel in the region. These include the enforcement of legal rights in growth markets, foreign ownership restrictions, and political instability. These issues remain challenges for growth economies and businesses, and have been highlighted as major barriers to doing business in Southeast Asia.
 
Benefits of attending
 
·         Learn how to deal with counterparty risk and obligations in supply and manufacturing contracts if the eurozone crisis escalates
·         Find out what debt refinancings and restructurings will look like in 2012?
·         Discover how to cope with increased regulatory scrutiny
·         Learn how to develop ‘soft’ skills and maximise your growing influence over the C-Suites
·         Find out how to balance your role as manager and lawyer
·         Discover how to ensure your anti-corruption compliance programmes are up to date and actively implemented
·         Learn how to minimise franchise risk