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On 4 April 2022, the UK Treasury published its response to the consultation and call for evidence on the UK regulatory approach to, amongst others, stablecoins.

Travers Smith LLP has advised longstanding client Equistone Partners Europe Limited ("Equistone") and other selling shareholders on the sale of OneOcean Group Limited ("OneOcean"), one of the largest global suppliers of voyage solutions in the maritime industry, to Lloyd's Register.

Travers Smith LLP is delighted to announce the promotion of 11 lawyers to Senior Counsel as part of its 2022 promotions round. Six of the 11 promoted lawyers are women (55 per cent).

Share plan annual returns for the 2021/22 tax year need to be filed online by 6 July 2022 in respect of all your share incentive arrangements to avoid penalties (an initial penalty of £100 will be due if a return is just one day late).

Travers Smith is advising EMIS Group plc on its recommended £1.243bn takeover offer by Bordeaux UK Holdings II Limited, an affiliate of Optum Health Solutions (UK) Limited and a wholly owned subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group Incorporated.

The UK and Luxembourg have signed a long-awaited re-negotiated tax treaty which will come into force in 2023 if approved by both countries by the end of 2022.

Last month, the UK Government set out its legislative programme for this Parliament in the Queen's Speech. In this briefing, we look at some of the proposals relevant to business which have had less media attention.

The Government intends pensions dashboards to bring about a fundamental change in the way individuals access information about their pensions, allowing people to see all of their future pension entitlements in one online place.

A regular briefing for the alternative asset management industry. 

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has recommended legislating to impose a positive obligation on consumer-facing businesses to disclose information about the environmental impact of their products. It has also recommended changes designed to make it easier to enforce consumer law against companies making misleading environmental claims, to allow orders to be made requiring businesses to make redress payments for environmental harm and to increase supply chain transparency.

In April, the UK introduced a new tax privileged regime for qualifying asset holding companies (QAHCs). However, many in the industry felt that the original guidance on the regime published by HMRC did not provide sufficient clarity as to when the activities of an asset holding company (AHC) would constitute a trade. This was important because a QAHC is almost completely prohibited from trading (trading activities must be both ancillary to the company's main investment business and not substantial). 

Travers Smith has advised Quilam Capital on the provision of a new significant committed debt facility to Perch Group, a Blackpool-headquartered specialist credit and asset management company.

Travers Smith LLP is delighted to announce that for the third consecutive year its Funds team has won the "Legal: Fund Formation Award" at the 2022 Drawdown Awards.

Welcome to the first episode in our Spotlight on ESG video series. 

Travers Smith LLP has advised long-standing client, the Access Group, and its management team on the further investment in the Access Group (at an associated enterprise value of £9.2bn) by its existing shareholders, TA Associates and Hg, and new minority shareholder GIC, a global institutional investor.

On 31 May 2022, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published a supervisory briefing (the Supervisory Briefing) addressed to EU national competent authorities (regulators) to promote "common supervisory practices" on the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) and other pieces of EU legislation concerning financial sustainability. This was closely followed on 2 June 2022 by a publication of the European Supervisory Authorities – one of which is ESMA - (ESAs) which sets out clarifications (the ESA Clarifications) on the draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) under SFDR.

On 15 March 2022, the UK's new Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act (the "ECA") received Royal Assent. The legislation contained a number of important provisions, including the introduction of a new 'Register of Overseas Entities' and reforms to unexplained wealth orders.

On 7 June 2022, HM Treasury issued its Response (Response) to its consultation in July 2021 on a Senior Managers & Certification Regime (SMCR) for financial market infrastructures (FMIs).

Travers Smith LLP has advised longstanding client Graphite Capital and management shareholders on the sale of Random42, a leading provider of scientific animation and digital media services, to The Lockwood Group, a portfolio company of Ares Management.

On 26 May, the FCA published a discussion paper setting out its response to feedback received regarding the structure of the UK listing regime. The feedback was in response to the FCA's Primary Markets Effectiveness Review.