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By Barbara Galli

Siebe and BTR are merging to create the world's largest maker of factory controls and automation equipment. UK engineering company Siebe will effectively acquire rival industrial equipment maker BTR to form a new group, valued at £9.4 billion ($14.7 billion). Linklaters & Alliance corporate partner Steven Turnbull is advising Siebe on the acquisition, with a team including partner Carlton Evans and assistants Angus Rollo, Helen Connolly and David Taylor. Morgan, Lewis & Bockius partner Izzet Sinan, based in Brussels, is advising Siebe on competition law aspects of the transaction. In the US, Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, New York, is advising on US securities law issues as well as regulatory law. Partners Sanford Krieger and Eric Queen lead the team.

Resisting the pressure to devalue the renminbi, the central bank and State Administration of Foreign Exchange have taken steps to prevent damage to China’s foreign exchange system. By Thomas E Jones of Freshfields, Hong Kong

Simon Gleeson, head of Richards Butler's financial services unit, is joining Allen & Overy on November 23. He will assist the firm in the development of its financial services group, providing advice on regulatory matters. The firm plans to create a group providing advice on UK regulations in financial services. The group will be built on the back of its banking practice, and, says Allen & Overy, will take a proactive role in the market. Gleeson says: "Regulatory advisers can be swamped with referral work by other parts of the firm. We want to go out in the market and build up direct relations with clients, providing them with a service which they don't get from the corporate guy."

Fannie Mae, the leading US mortgage lender, last week announced a $3 billion bond issue. The bonds are five year benchmark notes, due November 14 2003.. It was Fannie Mae's first issue in the five-year market since April.

Since introducing its specialist debt listing facility, the Cayman Islands has dealt with over 120 applications. Anne Nealon of the Cayman Island Stock Exchange explains the listing rules for structured bonds

The London Stock Exchange has revealed plans to use the Internet for its shelf registration system. Nick Ferguson examines securities registration and trading in cyberspace, which will revolutionize capital markets

Investors in Barings, the collapsed merchant bank, face further litigation after liquidators blew cold on the City Disputes Panel's (CDP) compensation plan. The City's arbitration service put together the package during three years of negotiations after rogue trader Nick Leeson lost $800million gambling on the Hong Kong and Osaka stock markets, forcing the bank to fold. The panel's package sought to compensate holders of Barings' $150 million floating rate notes, issued in 1986. The agreed package offered $85 million, put up by ING, the former directors of Barings and its former auditors Coopers & Lybrand and Deloitte & Touche. ING bought Baring for £1 in 1995. The majority of the '86 noteholders are so-called vulture funds, specialist traders of distressed debt, who have bought up the bonds with the hope of increasing the compensation award.

IFLR asked practitioners in Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia how financial authorities are reacting to the Millennium bug and what steps banks should take to achieve compliance

US law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe acted as US legal advisers and US tax advisers to Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) on the launch of its $2 billion 10-year global bond. Partners Christopher Moore and Carl Lyon led the team for Orrick Herrington. The TVA had planned to raise $1 billion, but poor US employment figures issued early on launch day led to strong bond trading and encouraged the TVA to increase the size of the issue. Proceeds from the bond issue will be used to help repay debt owed by the TVA to the US Treasury. In October, the TVA gained the approval of Congress to raise $3.2 billion in Federal Financing Bank (FFB) debt. The new issue is expected to be listed on the New York, Singapore, Hong Kong and Luxembourg stock exchanges.