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Linklaters & Alliance member De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek is set to become the first Dutch firm to open in China. De Brauw, along with ten other firms, got its licence from the Chinese ministry of justice in Beijing in the latest round of licence distribution. The office will open in Shanghai in September, complementing Linklaters' exisiting office in Beijing. De Brauw's other offices are in Brussels, London, New York and Prague.

Kevin Muzilla US firms Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy and Weil, Gotshal & Manges have advised on the first refinancing this year of a leveraged buy-out (LBO). The firms acted for lead manager Deutsche Bank and United Biscuits respectively on the $326 million refinancing of last year's LBO of UK biscuit maker by the Finalream consortium, which included Cinven, Paribas Affaire Industrielles, DB Capital Partners and Nabisco The refinancing of the United Biscuits LBO was done through a high-yield bond issue of two of senior subordinated notes, one of £120 million ($173 million) at 10% and redeemable in 2011 and the other of euro 160 million ($143 million) also due in 2011.

The Hart-Scott-Rodino Act has been the cornerstone of merger control in the US for 25 years. But revisions made to the Act this year will change the threshold at which mergers need to be reported in an attempt to bring more consolidations in the high-tech sector under the control of the federal authorities. James Lowe of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, Washington, DC examines the changes to the notification regime

The US water infrastructure needs billions of dollars of investment. As concern mounts that many towns and cities may struggle in the not-too-distant future to provide citizens with clean, safe water, IFLR invited a panel of industry specialists to discuss the obstacles and opportunities created by what may be the US’s next great infrastructure challenge

Wall Street firm Cravath, Swain & Moore had a bumper start to the Spring season in March, successful negotiating two deals totalling $15.5 billion. Also involved in the transactions were Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison and Californian firm Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe. Cravath, Swaine & Moore acted for healthcare product maker Johnson & Johnson in April on its agreed a $10.5 billion merger with research-based pharmaceuticals company ALZA. Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe acted for ALZA in a transaction which saw ALZA shareholders receive a fixed exchange ratio of 0.49 shares of Johnson & Johnson common stock for each share of ALZA in a tax-free transaction.

Financial institutions have called on the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to clarify its new disclosure rule.

News round-up In a move described by Mannheimer Swartling as a "friendly separation", five senior lawyers at the legal arm of Enskilda Securities, Enskilda Law took partnerships with the Stockholm-based firm.

News round-up Following the example of their neighbours across the water in Denmark, medium-sized Norwegian firms have started the year with a rash of mergers that has seen local market distribution shrink and conflict of interest problems grow.

Before the enactment of Azerbaijan's new Civil Code, the paper-based Azerbaijani payment system was a major contributing factor to the slowness and complexity of inter-bank transfers. Since the establishment of a commercial banking system in the country, the demand for electronic banking services has grown constantly. This demand was first recognized in law when Azerbaijan's new Civil Code was adopted, which authorized electronic banking and electronic signatures for the first time. That initial legislative step has set the stage for electronic banking that had previously been limited to the introduction of automated teller machines. Fortunately, the National Bank of Azerbaijan (the NBA) has used this new legislative basis to bring innovative technologies to Azerbaijan's banking sector.

The Hong Kong and English courts of appeal have been trying to disentangle their respective company laws to identity classes of creditors for schemes of arrangement. Joe Bannister of Lovells, Hong Kong looks at two recent judgments and asks if progress has been made