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Sullivan & Cromwell last month announced the appointment of two partners in Frankfurt as it revealed plans to launch a German law practice for the first time.

Following its severed alliance with Hong Kong's Johnson Stokes & Master and subsequent three-year exile from the territory, Norton Rose is preparing to reopen its doors for business on April 2 2002. Between viewings of available office space in Hong Kong's central district Paul Giles, Norton Rose's managing partner for Asia, discusses plans for the new office, China and Norton Rose's strategy for further growth in Asia.

A new Financial Markets Control Act (Finanzmarktaufsichtsgesetz) establishes a financial regulator with comprehensive competence, supervising all types of banks, insurance companies, and other financial services companies. The idea of having the concentration within one authority is primarily motivated by the international trend towards all-finance groups. It also looks to the potential synergies to be realized by consolidating separate supervisory authorities for the various branches of financial services in Austria. The new authority will have the status of an independent agency.

US legislators have granted the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) increased powers to respond to terrorist attacks or other emergencies. On October 12 the House Financial Services Committee voted to increase the length of time the Commission can waive regulations in response to a crisis.

Philip Rapp and Lee Taylor of Clifford Chance, Singapore, and Vincent Mignon of Heidelberger Zement Group, analyze the company’s recent complex investment in Indocement

A recent study (October 2001) of takeover bids for Canadian targets has produced some interesting results. The survey looked at 75 announced bids since Justice Blair gave judicial approval for the use of breakup fees (also known as break fees) as bid inducements in the contest for WIC Western International Communications in early 1998.

The Product Liability Act (PLA) is expected to come into force in July 2002. However, a recent court ruling should alert consumer product manufacturers and distributors in Korea about product liability risks even before the PLA comes into force. The case concerned a tort claim for injuries from a sudden acceleration incident involving an automatic transmission automobile. The burden of proof on the alleged defect of the automobile in this case was shifted to the manufacturer, for the reason that the manufacturer has more detailed technical knowledge while the consumer is not expected to have the high level technology to test such product and would purely rely on the manufacturer. Until last year, in several similar reported cases, courts had ruled that the burden is on the claimants to prove alleged defects on the products.

Jerome Jakubik of Baker & McKenzie, Chicago, discusses the structures and bidding procedures used by Asian financial institutions trying to dump burdensome non-performing loans

The Chinese authorities are creating a framework that they hope will attract venture capital funds onshore. Jonathan Lemberg, Xiaohu Ma, Paul Boltz and Jun Deng discuss the pros and cons of the new regime

Sergei Stepanov of White & Case, Moscow, looks at how Russia is trying to improve corporate governance and give minority shareholders greater protection