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News round-up Bech-Bruun Dragsted

On March 30 2001 the Ministry of Finance introduced a new Advance Tax Rulings (ATR) system. Under the new guidelines ATRs can be obtained - as in the past - for holding companies, financial service companies (eg financing and licencing companies), hybrid financing structures and permanent establishments. The aim of the new system is to improve the fiscal climate and to avoid the criticism that was heard in the past within the EU. An ATR will take the form of an agreement and will be published in an anonymous form

Angela Clist Clifford Chance and Allen & Overy are advising on a whole business-style securitization in the UK utility industry, involving a £2 billion ($2.86 billion) bond issue to finance the sale of Welsh Water to equity-less company Glas Cymru. The deal is the UK's first non-equity funded utility financing, with profits to be returned to customers through rebates on water bills. Stephen Curtis is leading the Clifford Chance team acting for RBS Financial Markets and Schroder Salomon Smith Barney, which are marketing the issue for around a month, before an expected closing in mid-May.

Most of New Zealand's insider trading laws have been in force for over 10 years, although during that time no one has ever been found guilty of insider trading. In March 2001 the government announced changes to improve New Zealand's insider trading regime. This followed the release of a discussion document on the subject in September 2000, and the resulting submissions, on which the government has decided to act.

Robert Palache, the former managing partner of Clifford Chance's finance practice, has resigned from his position as co-head of securitization at Nomura International. It is unknown where he will move next.

Clifford Chance Rogers & Wells has grabbed a fourth bankruptcy lawyer from Morgan, Lewis & Bockius' New York office. Scott Talmadge joined this April, reuniting with former colleagues Margot Schonholtz, Mark Liscio and Jill Kurtzman, who were recruited by Clifford Chance a year ago to develop the financial restructuring practice group.

Howard Davies Howard Davies, chairman of the UK's Financial Services Authority (FSA), warned in April that his fellow European regulators must take action if European banks are to benefit from the new Basle Capital Accord in 2004. Speaking at a conference on the accord in London, Davies urged Europe to make faster progress towards implementing the necessary legislation if it is to be able to start using the accord at the same time as the US and other non-Europeans.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) is pioneering financial regulation in the UK by becoming its sole governing power, and is closely linked to the debate over European regulation. With the Authority fully assuming its powers in November this year, Sara Ver-Bruggen talks to Andrew Whittaker about the challenges it faces

Singapore's DBS hired Freshfields and Allen & Gledhill to advise on its S$10 billion ($5.5billion) acquisition of Hong Kong's Dao Heng, which was advised by Slaughter and May. DBS's $782 million hybrid tier one financing in March prompted speculation that an acquisition was likely. Negotiations are rumoured to have begun in October 2000. DBS is controlled by the Singapore government, while Dao Heng was owned by the Guoco Group, which is controlled by the Kwek family, one of Malaysia's shrewdest business families.

Clifford Chance and Herbert Smith have worked alongside Scottish firm Tods Murray to structure a £1.5 billion ($2.2 billion) collateralized loan obligation (CLO) for Bank of Scotland, the first securitization of corporate loans under Scottish law. The deal, which uses a vehicle called Melrose Financing No 1 registered in England, is a true-sale cash flow CLO backed by Bank of Scotland loans to medium-sized UK corporates. The size of the individual loans securitized distinguishes Melrose from HSBC Bank's pioneering Clover Funding No 1 deal last year, in which a large corporate loan portfolio was securitized. Melrose sold two tranches of notes in dollars, sterling and euros and the structure enables further issuance.