The Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Business and Commercial Sciences at the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK) organized, on May 9, 2011, a conference on the theme of “Mergers & Acquisitions: Economic and Juridical Dimensions”, given by Mrs. Delia Spitzer and Dr. Shadi Karam.
Mrs. Delia Spitzer has over 25 years of experience in cross-border business transactions; she has worked on a broad range of corporate matters, including numerous acquisitions, joint ventures, commercial contracts and licensing arrangements, as well as matters involving securities law. She has become a senior legal advisor in instances where mergers and acquisitions meet other areas of law, including competition law, restructurings, sensitive labor issues, litigation in French and U.S. courts, and international arbitrations.
Dr. Shadi Karam is as a specialist in the restructuring of distressed companies and banks. He occupied the post of Financial Adviser to the Director General of UNESCO and served as a Chairman and CEO of several major companies in Europe and the Middle East in various sectors. Dr. Karam was the lead principal in the restructuring and modernization of the Real Estate Bank of Syria and the dramatic turnaround of Lebanon's BLC Bank. He is currently the Chairman and General Manager of BLC Finance SAL and Special Adviser to H.E. the President of the Republic of Lebanon, Michel Suleiman.
Following the opening speech by Ms. Lea Yahchouchi and the welcome speech by Rev. Fr. Talal Hachem, Mrs. Spiltzer tackled the legal dimensions of mergers and acquisitions, shedding light on the major differences and similarities between civil law and common law. She underlined that such differences no longer exist today, since the civil law is adopting concepts from the common law and vice versa. Dr. Shady Karam started his lecture with an overview on the theme of mergers and acquisitions, its definition, types, phases, and highlighted major concepts in the field, such as reverse mergers, due diligence, fighting take-overs, estimating cash flows, etc.