Category: 3. Business

Baker McKenzie has acted as global counsel to Medtronic plc on the carve-out and spin-off of their diabetes business, MiniMed Group, Inc. MiniMed was listed on Nasdaq on 6 March 2026, and was valued at over USD 5.3 billion at the close of the first day trading. 
 
A diverse range of Baker McKenzie lawyers worked on the global deal including: the central team:  Ben McLaughlin; Tharani Dharmaraj; Phelim O’Doherty; Daniel Relton; Irina Shestakova; Nathan Jones; Patrick Edwards; and Ruby Jenson; the employment team led by Carl Richards; Zelander Gray; and Felipe Graham; the corporate law team: Grace Chia; John Nielsen; JJ Juilfs; Chloe Law; Megan Liew; Ethan McAuliffe; Fin Miller; Amer Nasr; Tara Taylor; Jacob Turner; and Andrew Tyau; the antitrust team led by Georgina Foster; the intellectual property team led by Natalie Ellerby, Adam Aft; Keo McKenzie; and Mark Gardiner; and the tax team Led by Miles Hurst and Ethan Kroll.  

Medtronic is the leading global healthcare technology company, with a team of more than 95,000 people across more than 150 countries. Medtronic’s technologies and therapies treat 70 health conditions and include cardiac devices, surgical robotics, surgical tools, patient monitoring systems, and more.

MiniMed is a global leader in insulin delivery, constantly advancing therapies that support people with diabetes in 80 countries. MiniMed’s integrated ecosystem, including its insulin delivery systems, continuous glucose monitors, algorithms, and easy-to-use app experience, is designed to work seamlessly together, supported by white-glove, wrap-around service.

For more information, please see the press release.

 

Asheville. As a hub for outdoor activities and
creatives, Asheville, with its nearly 100,000 inhabitants in the US
state of North Carolina, provides the perfect stage for the largest
model in the MINI family: the MINI JCW Countryman ALL4.

Thanks to an impressive power of 221 kW/300 hp, up to 400 Nm of
torque and standard all-wheel drive, maximum driving fun and reliable
traction on demanding mountain sections is guaranteed. With its
7-speed dual-clutch transmission and direct steering, the MINI JCW
Countryman can be maneuvered confidently even through the tight
switchbacks around Asheville.

Modern driver assistance systems allow for autonomous driving up to
Level 2 and comfortable arrival on the highways of the US state on the
US East Coast. A luggage capacity ranging from 450 to 1,460 litres
offers plenty of space for any trip into the forests and mountains of
North Carolina.

With this release, we provide new image material of the MINI JCW Countryman.

 

In case of queries, please contact:
Corporate Communications

Julian Kisch, Spokesperson
MINI
Phone: +49-151-601-38072
E-Mail: julian.kisch@mini.com

Micaela Sandstede, Head of Communications MINI
Phone:
+49-176-601-61611
E-mail micaela.sandstede@bmw.de

MINI John Cooper Works Countryman ALL4 (WLTP combined: Power
consumption 8,3-7,8 l /100 km; CO2 emissions 187 – 177 g/km; CO2 class E)

In the Media  |  March 10, 2026

Dow Jones Risk Journal

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The Dow Jones Risk Journal published remarks made by partner Vivek Mohan at the recent Dow Jones Risk Journal Summit in New York. He spoke about the challenges faced by companies attempting to balance the drive for innovation with evolving legal and regulatory changes.

“Penalties for noncompliance can sometimes be a cost of doing business; perfection is very hard,” Vivek said. “But when you get to the place where there are limitations on your ability to make decisions, launch new products or services, or run the business the way you want, that is actually I think the hammer that keeps CEOs and other leadership up at night.”

Vivek is Co-Chair of our Artificial Intelligence Practice Group.

Since American and Israeli missiles began striking Iran, global oil prices have jumped sharply. The conflict has resulted in the disruption of tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which carries about one-fifth of the world’s oil shipments.

For Canadians, the effects have been immediate, with higher prices at the gas pump.

A familiar refrain has already surfaced in Canadian political commentary: higher oil prices are good for Canada. That intuition is understandable, given that Canada is the world’s fourth-largest oil producer, with oil and gas being Canada’s highest export earner.

But that claim misses two key points. First, while Canada as a whole might gain from higher oil prices as a net energy exporter, those gains are unevenly distributed across sectors and provinces. Second, the mechanism that softened that pain — a stronger Canadian dollar — has weakened.

Together, these two facts clarify why rising oil prices are hitting Canadians harder than they did in previous decades.

Not all Canadians benefit

Oil and gas are undeniably important to Canada. Oil and gas extraction alone has averaged about five per cent of national GDP since 2000, and the sector supported approximately 446,600 direct and indirect jobs in 2023.

The importance of oil also varies dramatically across provinces. In Alberta and Saskatchewan, for example, oil and gas production accounts for roughly 22 per cent and 16 per cent of provincial GDPs, respectively.

By contrast, in Ontario and Québec — home to about 60 per cent of Canadians — the sector contributes only a small fraction of provincial output.

When crude prices rise, Alberta and Saskatchewan collect more royalties, and energy company revenues climb. For that slice of Canada, conflict in the Persian Gulf can bring economic benefits.

Yet windfall gains are also constrained by infrastructure. Pipeline capacity and production limits mean Canadian producers cannot expand quickly when global prices surge.

The completion of the Trans Mountain Expansion Project in 2024 increased access to Pacific markets, but production cannot be scaled overnight and bottlenecks still blunt the swift supply response needed to realize a windfall gain.

For most Canadians, the picture is simpler and less pleasant. Higher oil prices means higher costs not only at the pump, but also gradually in grocery stores and heating bills, and reduced purchasing power.

A sustained $10 increase in oil typically raises Canadian inflation by roughly 0.3 to 0.4 percentage points over the following year.

How oil shocks spread

Economists typically analyze oil shocks through four transmission channels: terms of trade, income, costs and monetary policy.

The first is the terms-of-trade channel. Because Canada exports more energy than it imports, higher oil prices mean the country earns more for its exports relative to what it pays for imports. That improves Canada’s purchasing power in global markets.

The second is the income channel, which determines who receives those gains: higher oil prices raise producers’ revenues and governments’ royalties, concentrating much of the windfall in oil-producing regions and among shareholders.

The third is the cost channel: oil is a key input into transportation, manufacturing and agriculture, so higher energy prices ripple through supply chains and into household budgets.

The fourth is the monetary policy channel, which often shapes the broader economy. Central banks like the Bank of Canada aim to keep inflation near a stable target. If rising oil prices keep inflation elevated for long enough, policymakers may delay interest rate cuts or keep borrowing costs higher.

Higher interest rates help contain inflation but slow spending and investment across the economy. In short, the same oil shock that boosts Canada’s energy sector can, via inflation and interest rates, slow other parts of the economy.

A weaker currency cushion

Perhaps the most consequential shift over the past decade is the changing relationship between oil prices and the Canadian dollar.

As noted by the Bank of Canada, for most of the 2000s and early 2010s, the Canadian dollar behaved like a petrocurrency. When oil prices rose, the loonie often strengthened as well.

A stronger currency made imported goods cheaper and helped offset some of the inflationary pressure from higher gasoline and energy prices. The exchange rate acted as a natural shock absorber.

That cushion has weakened substantially. Research by Alberta Central, CIBC Capital Markets and several economists all point out that the relationship between oil prices and the Canadian dollar weakened in the mid-2010s and continues to remain weak.

One reason is that investment in Canada’s oil and gas extraction fell 55 per cent from 2014 to 2019, then dropped a further 36 per cent in 2020. This decline reduced the foreign investment flows that once pushed the Canadian dollar higher when oil prices rose.

Second, energy companies are now more likely to return profits to shareholders through dividends and buybacks than to launch new projects. However, many of those shareholders are foreign investors, and even domestic holders, such as pension funds, distribute returns across global portfolios.

As such, the reinvestment of oil windfalls back into the Canadian economy has declined significantly compared to the investment-led boom years of the 2000s. Other factors, like the rise of U.S. shale, have also weakened the oil-currency link.

The practical consequence is that when oil spikes today, Canadians absorb more of the inflationary impact and receive less of the offsetting currency benefit they did a decade ago. For Canada, war-driven oil price spikes are therefore less a national windfall than a redistribution across sectors, provinces and from consumers to energy producers.

With the Canadian dollar no longer rising alongside oil as it once did, price spikes now translate more directly into higher living costs for Canadians.

The author would like to thank Vinh Nguyen, a research assistant and undergraduate student at MacEwan University’s School of Business, for her contribution to this article.

As generative AI becomes part of how we conduct social science, we have to revisit the foundations of our methods. The symposium created space for interdisciplinary dialogue about what rigorous and replicable AI-driven research might look like.

Darren GergleCodirector of the Center for Human-Computer Interaction + Design, Bao Family Professor in Human-Computer Interaction at Northwestern’s School of Communication, and (by courtesy) Professor of Computer Science at Northwestern Engineering

The Federal Reserve Board on Tuesday announced the termination of the enforcement actions listed below:

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Ltd., Beijing, People’s Republic of China and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Ltd, New York Branch, New York, New York

Written Agreement dated November 4, 2021 (PDF)

Terminated February 27, 2026

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd., Beijing, People’s Republic of China and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd. New York Branch, New York, New York

Cease and Desist Order dated January 16, 2024 (PDF)

Terminated February 26, 2026

Standard Chartered PLC, London, United Kingdom, Standard Chartered Bank, London, United Kingdom, and Standard Chartered Bank, New York Branch, New York, New York

Cease and Desist Order dated December 10, 2012 (PDF)

Terminated February 26, 2026

Standard Chartered PLC, London, United Kingdom, Standard Chartered Bank, London, United Kingdom, and Standard Chartered Bank, New York Branch, New York, New York

Cease and Desist Order dated April 8, 2019 (PDF)

Terminated February 26, 2026

Additional enforcement actions can be searched for here.

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