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Project financiers are tiptoeing back into the Asia Pacific region. And law firms in the area are chasing after their coat-tails. The open-necked polo shirts of Latham & Watkins' west coast dealmakers were clashing recently with the pinstripes of Norton Rose's City gents when the two firms sat across the table to lawyer Eastern Power & Electric's development of the 350MW Bang Bo independent power project.

Singapore's Cycle and Carriage (C&C), which last month led a consortium to buy a $506 million stake in Indonesia's leading car-maker Astra, is now in talks to buy an additional 3.9% stake - 103 million shares - from its fellow consortium member, Lazard Fund Asia.

Regulators in Singapore and the US have joined forces to crack down on fraud. The SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) will both work with the Singapore Monetary Authority (MAS) on possible violations of securities and futures rules.

Deacons and Graham & James have called an end to their 10-year association. As of July 1 Deacons Graham & James will cease to exist. They are parting company after coming to a "crossroad in [their] respective strategies", said Mark Roberts, Deacons' managing partner, in a statement to the press.

New Commercial Companies Code to be enacted Effective January 2001, enactment of Poland's new Commercial Companies Code is expected. The bill introduces new regulations pertaining to, among other things, limited liability companies and joint stock companies — the two vehicles for foreign investments.

Linklaters completes series of central European bond issues

It may not have the highest headline value for a deal this year, but the sale of Rover car group to the UK's Phoenix consortium for a symbolic £10 by BMW has certainly generated a great deal of publicity. The transaction was notable both for the enormous public and political pressure on participants to close a deal that would save thousands of jobs in the UK and the complexity of putting together a package that could work.

Howard Davies, chairman of the Financial Services Authority, explained the rationale behind the changes to the UK listing authority during a speech at this month's annual IOSCO conference in Sydney (for a more detailed conference commentary see page 6).

Japan’s lawyers have never had it so good. The market for their services is booming as overseas investors pump money into the country and Japanese companies look to the international markets for funds. But there aren’t enough lawyers to do the job. And foreign practitioners say they can’t offer the service their clients want. Things need to change. Ralph Cunningham reports from Tokyo

South Africa introduces capital gains tax Just when several countries are considering dismantling or reducing the impact of their capital gains tax legislation, South Africa's minister of finance has given notice in his annual budget speech of the intention to introduce the tax in South Africa. Capital gains tax will take effect from April 1 2001, and it is understood that the amending legislation will be available early in 2001. In the interim, the tax authorities have issued a guide relating to the tax and its application.