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Payment-in-kind notes have been popular in the US for some time. Now bankers in Europe are keen to add these instruments to their deals. Clifford Atkins and Philippa Dodd of Shearman & Sterling show how

A key characteristic of supplementary capital contributions (prestações suplementares), which Portuguese law (articles 201º to 213º of the Company Code) forsees being used exclusively for Lda companies, but which subject to certain requirements may also be materially adopted in SA companies, is to enable shareholders to make supplementary capital contributions. This is provided the terms under which such contributions are made are stipulated in the company's by-laws and that supplementary equity capital is non-interest bearing. To demand from the shareholders all or part of the amount (necessarily foreseen in the by-laws) of the supplementary capital contributions, a resolution from the General Meeting is always required.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer's FRESH Capital Securities deal enabled Fortis to raise tax deductible debt that would be treated by the regulators as equity. Donald Guiney explains how the deal worked

Commodity swaps in Italy are classified as financial instruments as are equity, currency and interest rate swaps. This is pursuant to article 1, paragraph 2 of Legislative Decree No 58 of the Consolidated Law on Financial Intermediation (February 24 1998). According to the public authority responsible for regulating the Italian securities market (Consob) trading in commodity swaps can be considered an investment service as defined in article 1, paragraph 5 of the same Decree.

A direct link (e-link) between the central securities depositories of Finland and Sweden was opened on June 3 2002. The Finnish Central Securities Depository has similar links with Germany, France and the Netherlands and a link to Switzerland through Germany.

This year, many significant amendments have been made to the Commercial Code. The latest amendments were promulgated on May 29 2002 and will take effect sometime within a year after this date. One of the amendments will allow class voting for the election of directors.

Austria has always had closer ties with eastern Europe than many of its fellow EU members. But these links are forcing Austria’s law firms to make a difficult choice between east and west. Michael Evans reports

Last year’s legal reforms promised great things for the German market. Thomas Williams reports from Frankfurt where lawyers are now desperate for a long-expected recovery

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer worked opposite Clifford Chance on the £950 million ($1.4 billion) initial public offering of bookmaker William Hill which is likely to be one of the biggest UK offerings of the year. Freshfields won the mandate to act for William Hill after advising the issuer's previous owners, Nomura, on its attempt to float the company in 1999.

Recent SEC actions show it is not just the energy industry that is coming under the Commission’s fire for manipulating earnings reports. Neil Golden of Chadbourne & Parke, Washington DC, explains why technical compliance with GAAP may no longer be enough