Although the Hungarian capital markets are not the most sophisticated or capitalized in the region, as there is a relatively low number of public debt and equity offerings. A number of mature local investment services providers as well as lawfully accessible cross border banks and investment banks are active in Hungary: they keep us up-dated with international trends; to Hungarian professional and retail customers they make all investment instruments and services available which are traded at international capital markets (whether in stock exchanges, multilateral trading platforms or OTC). Recently the Hungarian National Bank introduced a number of corporate bond programs and the Budapest Stock Exchange stepped in as market maker with the Xtend equity and Xbond debt MTF platforms to strengthen the Hungarian capital markets and support issuers and boost the trade appetite of investors at a trustworthy marketplace.
Passporting and other Regulatory
When serving our clients, we often provide regulatory consultancy advice on the terms of offering cross border investment services and MiFID passporting, on the intermediation or marketing of services to Hungary and on the terms of establishment as an investment service provider or fund manager (mainly for the management of alternative investment instruments) in Hungary.
Investigations
We advise investment service providers in connection with investigations of and warnings from the National Bank of Hungary when it acts as the financial supervisory authority in connection with unauthorized investment services or other alleged misconduct, or represent various stakeholders in market manipulation or insider trading investigations.
Niche Dispute Resolution
We also have a niche dispute resolution practice which specializes in defending banks or investment service providers that are subject to prospectus liability claims or other consumer claims for misleading product offerings.
Bond and Equity Offerings
We often represent international financial institutions or multinational corporations in connection with bond offerings. In the case of the banks’ own offerings, we usually advise on prospectus and summary terms for cross border offerings to Hungary and applicable tax rules. In connection with bond offerings by international corporate issuers we usually advise on the Hungarian security documents that serve as collaterals made available by the local subsidiary guarantors, issue relating legal opinions and consult on inter-creditor agreements with senior lenders.
We also represent a number of public issuers – some since their IPOs – on a daily basis, as well as assist international or domestic issuers in connection with public offering of equity securities.
Takeover Bids
We advise bidders in connection with public takeover bids. In other cases, for issuers we have developed and implemented various takeover defence mechanisms for our clients, including special charter and by-law provisions. If required, we also assist our clients in regulatory investigations related to insider trading and market abuse matters.
Employee Stock Option Schemes
We also often advise multinational issuers in connection with employee stock option schemes, covering all relevant aspects from capital markets law through employment and data protection law to tax law.
