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November 2, 2020
COVID-19, From Crisis to Opportunity
Crises test our resilience. They prevent us from deceiving ourselves about things that are unpleasant to face. Therefore, the COVID-19 crisis is a real opportunity to upgrade an organizations compliance mechanisms and the status of its compliance officer. This includes not only improving compliance capabilities, but also integrating and deepening connections to the organizations management.
November 1, 2020
COVID-19 Does Not Justify a Breach of or Deviation from a Contract When Its Arrival in Israel Was Foreseeable
An Israeli court recently rendered an interesting ruling on the impact of COVID-19. The case in question involved the lease agreement for the operation of a hotel. The lease agreement, executed in February 2020, provided payment of rental fees for the month of March, but payment for the months of April and May had not yet been arranged.
November 1, 2020
Barnea Represents Danel in Acquisition of Manor Medical
Our firm represented Danel in its acquisition of a 51% stake in Manor Medical, an egg donation and surrogacy company, in a transaction valued at up to ILS 140 million. Adv. Micky Barnea and Adv. Ilan Blumenfeld led the representation.
October 29, 2020
An Urban Renewal Project Agreement Is Not Transferrable
In urban renewal projects, residents or owner’s rights holders select the company with whom they are willing to embark upon this long journey, based on relationship of trust and competence. The trust required leads both parties to execute a binding agreement. Understandably, residents expect the company which whom they have contracted with to remain unchanged and not for those rights not to be transferred to other parties.
October 27, 2020
How Can a Tiny Virus Threaten the Foundations of Corporate Operations?
A number of US pharma companies have issued a joint statement promising not to shorten the process for developing a coronavirus vaccine or to prioritize narrow economic considerations over public health. This cooperation between competing companies challenges existing perceptions about the business sector and shows that sometimes public health is no less an important consideration. Is now the time for companies to value the public good and other relevant stakeholders over company shareholders? Read more in an op-ed in Globes.
October 27, 2020
Israeli Government Encourages Companies to Publish Corporate Responsibility Reports
A recently launched government program aims to encourage companies to publish social responsibility reports, or ESG (environmental, social, and government) responsibility reports. The Ministry of Strategic Affairs in the Prime Minister's Office announced the launch of the “Impact Nation" program, as part of a broad move to promote publication of positive economic information regarding Israeli companies, following the publication of the Israeli companies database by UN Human Rights Council.
October 26, 2020
Barnea Represents Knorr-Bremse in Acquisition of Additional 19.8% of Rail Vision
Adv. Simon Jaffa and Adv. Ariella Dreyfuss represented Knorr-Bremse, the German global market leader for braking systems for rail and commercial vehicles, in its USD 10 million investment in the Israeli railway safety company Rail Vision.
October 25, 2020
H&M Fined EUR 35 Million for Violating Employee Privacy in Germany
In early October, the Data Protection Authority in Hamburg, Germany announced that the clothing retailer HM committed severe violations of its employees' privacy. Because of these European General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) violations, the retailer would pay a fine of approximately 35 million euros.
October 19, 2020
Barnea Represents Canomed in Issuing Series of Options
Our firm represented Canomed, a company engaged in cultivating, marketing, and selling medical cannabis directly to consumers, in the issuance of two series of options expected to raise ILS 6 million. Canomed is among the first companies to pursue the acquisition of pharmacies licensed to sell medical cannabis, giving it direct access to end consumers. The company already owns several such pharmacies.
October 15, 2020
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) –The Future of Finance?
What is DeFi?
The first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, is still the most well-known application of blockchain. However, this technology has since rapidly evolved and expanded in many other areas. The initial hope with Bitcoin was to make both money and payments decentralized and universally accessible. Although Bitcoin failed to live up to this promise, decentralized finance based on blockchain (DeFi), also called open finance, is a fledgling technology with potential. DeFi is operated by decentralized, permisionless (without any central authority) applications, called DApps, built on a blockchain network, most commonly Etherum. Visionaries see this as an open-source alternative to every financial service we use today: from savings, loans, and trades, to insurance and even more, all globally accessible.
October 15, 2020
Leaked FinCEN Files Harm the Fight Against Money Laundering
In mid-September 2020, a series of articles were published by a group of foreign journalists, based on the collection and analysis of over 2,500 leaked documents from FinCEN, the US equivalent of the Israel Money Laundering and Terror Financing Prohibition Authority. The leak of such sensitive information may cause banks and financial institutions to think twice before reporting suspicious financial activity, which would be a mistake. Read more in an op-ed in Calcalist.
October 15, 2020
Cayman Islands Removed from EU “Non-Cooperative Tax Jurisdiction” Blacklist
In late March 2020 we published a note regarding the de-facto “downgrade” of the Cayman Islands by the European Union’s Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) as a “non-cooperative jurisdiction” for tax purposes. This was regarded by the international investment community as a “blacklisting” of the Cayman Islands. We noted then that this blacklisting was “a technical result of the delay in the enactment of [certain Cayman Islands] laws, and therefore it is expected the EU will agree to return the Cayman Islands to its previous status and remove it from the list of the list of “non-cooperative jurisdictions” as early as by October 2020.” Indeed on October 6, 2020, ECOFIN removed the Cayman Islands from its “blacklist” of non-cooperative jurisdictions in tax matters.
October 14, 2020
2020’s Wave of IPOs
Since the beginning of 2020, ten initial public offerings (IPOs) have been completed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, for a total of ILS 12 billion. In addition, another 15 companies plan to issue IPOs at a cumulative value of ILS 8 billion by the end of the year. What has changed, why should we pay attention, and what should we watch out for? Five experts in the field, including Adv. Micky Barnea, answer all TheMarker’s questions.
October 13, 2020
How to Comply with Local Employment Laws in a World with No Boundaries
In recent months, COVID-19 has prompted many employers to close their offices and require employees to work from home, sometimes indefinitely. Employers and employees alike have discovered that work does not always require a physical presence in the office. This shift has created a new challenge: Israelis working abroad are asking to return to Israel to be closer to family, or their employers are asking them to return to reduce costs. But what happens when an Israeli employee works for an international company with no presence in Israel? What legal requirements apply? In an article published by Calcalist, Adv. Netta Bromberg, head of our Employment Department, explores these questions.
October 13, 2020
Investor Relations Workshop – Practical Aspects
The Israel Investor Relations Forum of the Israeli Association of Publicly Traded Companies, in collaboration with the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, has launched an investor relations course for executives from leading companies. Yesterday’s session focused on regulation, including the rules of the game and how to publicize announcements to international investors.
October 2, 2020
Employment: Paid Sick Leave for Time in Quarantine
Yesterday the Court granted the State’s request to extend the period during which employees may use paid sick leave for time in quarantine until October 28, 2020.
As you may remember, the Supreme Court repealed an order from the Ministry of Health, according to which a sweeping medical certificate was given to employees in quarantine due to possible exposure to COVID-19. This repeal was to have entered into effect on September 30, 2020.
October 1, 2020
Japan, the Land of the Rising Sun, and Interest in Israeli Hi-Tech Companies
2014 was a good year for the Israeli-Japanese economic relationship. Viber’s USD 900 million acquisition by Japanese giant Rakuten and the RD cooperation agreement between Japan and Israel marked the beginning of growing interest and a successful relationship between the two distinct countries.
September 30, 2020
Israel’s Second Lockdown: A Guide for Employers
The lockdown entered inְto effect on September 25, 2020, at 14:00, and is expected to continue until October 10, 2020. It is possible at the end of this period the lockdown will be extended. We have prepared an in-depth update for employers on the relevant topics.
September 29, 2020
Adv. Jacki Silbermann Lectures on Workers' Rights
Adv. Jacki Silbermann of our Employment Department delivered a lecture today on employees’ rights in Israel as part of Israel Tech Challenge’s Data Science Fellows program. Established to address the workforce shortage in Israel’s tech industry, Israel Tech Challenge offers intensive training programs for new immigrants who are outstanding graduates of leading universities worldwide.
September 24, 2020
Adv. Ariella Dreyfuss to Serve as Judge for IBM Alpha Zone Pitch Day
The IBM Accelerator Pitch Day takes place today, giving entrepreneurs the opportunity to present their ideas to a panel of experts. Adv. Ariella Dreyfuss will serve as one of the judges.