Loan agreement is one of the most common ways of financing in Belarusian companies when a foreign shareholder provides a loan to the Belarusian Company. This article covers some crucial issues of receiving loans from foreign companies including currency and tax regulations.

The article covers the procedures of recognition and enforcement of decisions of foreign courts and foreign arbitral awards in the Republic of Belarus.

Law Firm Glimstedt presents the overview of tobacco industry in Belarus. The article covers the following matters: current business trends and opportunities, restrictions and advertisement, prices and taxations, production and import requirements.

As far as entering of a foreign company into the construction market of the Republic of Belarus is concerned, taxation of foreign construction companies’ profits, operating in the Republic of Belarus through the permanent establishment is one of the problematic issues.

There are various methods for debts recovery of legal, economic and non-legal (psychological and physical impact) natures. This article covers legal methods connected with financial sanctions against the debtor, which may be applied in Belarus.

The Law of Republic of Belarus of January 10, 2011 No. 241-З “On Introduction of Amendments and Supplements to Certain Codes on the Issues of Improvement of Economic legal proceedings” came into effect on January 31, 2011 (hereinafter referred to as “The Law"). The Law amended The Civil Code, the Code of Economic Procedure and the Tax Code of the Republic of Belarus.

The M&A market in Belarus is in the making at present. However, in recent years the M&A activity has become more intense in such areas as banking, telecommunication, insurance and other sectors, mainly due to the heightened interest in Belarusian economy and constant liberalization of business regulations.

In the liberalization of the economy is actively conducted and actions for improvement of investment climate are carried out. In spite of the fact that the Republic of Belarus has worsened its positions in Doing business rating that was made by the World Bank in 2010 in comparison with the previous year and has taken only the 68th place among 183 countries, positive tendencies in the legislation regarding improvement of all indicators are observed.

Recently, M&A activity in the Republic of Belarus has been increasing. Despite the fact that in comparison with other member-states of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the scope of M&A transaction in the Republic of Belarus is much lower, rates of growth of M&A market in Belarus have almost doubled as compared with 2009.

In the course of business activity companies often face the necessity of transfer of Internet websites. The difficulty of this transfer is that a website in the Republic of Belarus is not considered as an object of intellectual property in contrast to Russian Federation. However, other objects of intellectual property can be used on a website (for example, website design, data base, trademarks and others).

Acquisition of business has several stages, including gathering of information about acquired company, preparing of documentation, negotiation, execution and closing of transaction. The quality of research and investigation in the acquired company affects not only on the position of the buyer and seller in the negotiations, but also the company's activities in future.

Nowadays not only foreign investors and clients who are willing to finance different projects but also foreign contractors involved in construction of turnkey are interested in Belarusian construction business. There are several strategies to enter the construction business which may be implemented in the frame-work of cooperation or integration.