<p>The Luxembourg District Court sitting in commercial matters has today declared bankrupt the companies ESPIRITO SANTO FINANCIAL GROUP S.A. (ESFG) and ESPIRITO SANTO FINANCIERE S.A. (ESFIL) following the applications filed by the Board of Directors of each company yesterday and despite the period of appeal of the judgments of 3rd October 2014 (rejecting the applications for controlled management) having not expired yet.</p>
<p>Bankruptcy declared for Espirito Santo entities</p>
<p>Within the framework of our membership to the ELG (Energy Law Group), David Maria, Partner and Delia Nitescu, Senior Associate have contributed an article of the Luxembourg renewable sector which has been released in the European Energy Journal. We invite you to discover this article below.</p>
<p>The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published an updated version of its Q&A on Propectus issues.</p>
<p>The updates of questions 82, 91, 93, 94 and 95 include three new and two revised questions and answers all related to prospectus summaries.</p>
<p>The Q&A is aimed at competent authorities who carry supervisory responsibility under the Prospectus Directive and aims at ensuring convergence in supervisory activities across the EU.</p>
<p>The Luxembourg District Court sitting in commercial matters has declared bankrupt the group parent company ESPIRITO SANTO INTERNATIONAL S.A. (ESI) on 27 October 2014, following the Court’s decision of 17 October 2014 that had rejected ESI’s application for controlled management.</p>
<p>The Court has appointed Mr. Alain Rukavina, lawyer and Mr. Paul Laplume, chartered auditor, as bankruptcy estate receivers (<em>curateurs</em>), and Mrs. Karin Guillaume as supervisory judge (<em>juge-commissaire</em>).</p>
<p><strong>On 23 July 2014, Directive 2014/92/EU<sup>1</sup> (the “Payment Accounts Directive”) has been adopted with the aim to improve consumer rights of EU citizens in the field of (i) access to payment accounts, (ii) comparability of payment account fees and (iii) payment account switching.</strong></p>
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<h3>Background</h3>
<p>Plutôt que d’abolir les titres au porteur comme l’ont déjà fait ou prévoient de le faire certains pays limitrophes<sup>1</sup>, le Luxembourg, après avoir mené une réflexion de plusieurs années sur le sujet<sup>2</sup> et à la suite de l’introduction du régime des titres dématérialisés en 2013<sup>3</sup>, a fait le choix de conserver la possibilité, pour les sociétés commerciales, d’émettre des actions au porteur sous réserve de leur immobilisation et a ainsi entrepris de réformer le régime juridique attaché aux actions et parts au porteur.</
<h3>Law of 25 November 2014 on the procedure applicable to the exchange of tax information upon request</h3>
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<p><strong>During the second half-year of 2014, no less than five entities of the Luxembourg holding structure of the family controlled Banco Espirito Santo Group have had their fate in the hands of the judges of the Luxembourg District Court sitting in commercial matters located at the Plateau Saint-Esprit in Luxembourg-City and in the end, have all been declared bankrupt by the said Court.</strong></p>
<p>Instead of abolishing bearer shares as already done or planed to be done by some neighboring countries, the Luxembourg lawmaker, after leading an in-depth reflection of many years on the subject and as a result of the introduction of the dematerialised securities regime in 2013, has chosen to retain the possibility, for Luxembourg commercial companies, to issue bearer shares provided to their immobilisation and has thus begun to reform the legal system attached to the bearer shares.</p>