I apolosise, despite promising to give an outline of the new draft M&A tax rules today I have been swamped at work. I will endeavour to get this done over the weekend.

On a related note, yours truly and a couple of China M&A practitioners will be taking part in a M&A seminar hosted by Aust-Cham and Brit-Cham in mid-March. My talk will solely concern the tax issues inherent in M&A transactions. Some of the topics I will discuss will include the M&A rules issued last year, the impact of the new draft M&A rules, Circular 601 and Circular 298

Apart from myself, the lineup of speakers is quite impressive. Geradline Putra Johns who writes the always interesting View To China blog will be giving her insights on China’s M&A regulatory and legal regime. Geraldine is the director of a China focused M&A legal consultancy based in London who previously worked in China for several years. Given this, and based on the quality of her blog, I think she have some very interesting insights into the developments for the coming year.

The other speaker will be Alex Clar, a lawyer with the large Chinese firm Grandalls. Alex has worked in foreign direct investment field and M&A in China for a number of years. Presently his practice focuses on outbound investment (mainly US capital markets I understand). I think he will similarly have some interesting, and perhaps alternative, insights.

I am really looking forward to taking part and hearing Gerladine and Alex’s views.