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Michael Alcamo of White & Case, New York explains how to draft prospectuses in plain English and asks the SEC what issuers can expect from the new rules

On August 21 1998, the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange circulated among the companies quoted on its market, the answer that the Comisión Nacional de Valores (the securities and exchange commission, CNV) gave to the question posed by the Mercado de Valores de Buenos Aires as to whether the fall in stock prices, caused by the global stock market crisis could be construed as constituting serious damage to the quoted corporations, thereby allowing them to buy back their own shares.

US firms suffered from the effects of the Asian crisis on Latin America, but benefited from a thriving market at home, while Canadian firms enjoyed an increasing involvement in global equity offerings. Barbara Galli reports

Switzerland's telecoms company Swisscom has been privatized in Europe's largest initial public offering (IPO) of 1998. The issue had been valued to raise about Swfr7.5 billion (US$5.6 billion) for the government and Swisscom and to give the company a market capitalization of Swfr25 billion. The deal is the first privatization in Switzerland and the largest ever IPO in the country. It follows the rapid transformation of Swisscom from state-owned entity to private company, having been incorporated in January this year. The success of the Swisscom deal contrasts with the problems experienced by other telecoms offerings. The French government has delayed a secondary offering of shares in France Telecom and Goldman Sachs has withdrawn from the underwriting group for the Telekomunikacja Polska SA IPO due to take place in November.

Securitization is rapidly becoming a common financing technique in Italy with new regulations modelled on foreign securitization rules. By Raffaele Rizzi of Baker & McKenzie, London

The decision of the UK High Court which threw the use of Chinese walls in professional firms into doubt has been overturned. The Court of Appeal has removed the injunction from accountant KPMG which barred it from acting for the Brunei Investment Agency on an investigation into the Agency's former activities. Woolf MR, giving the judgment of the court, said that the approach to such a case should be: to determine the existence of confidential information which might harm a former client; to determine whether there was a risk of that information being disclosed; and whether the former fiduciary relationship was so strong that the court should intervene with an injunction. These issues were to be determined on the facts of each case.

Formula One Holdings, which controls television rights for the motor racing world championship is planning a US$2 billion Eurobond issue within the next few weeks. The issue through Formula One Finance BV replaces plans for a flotation of Formula One Holdings. The flotation was abandoned last year following an inquiry by the European Commission into the relationship between motor racing's governing body, the FIA, the television broadcasters and the Formula One companies. The bond issue may be a preparatory move before another flotation attempt.

UK firm Allen & Overy has provided advice to the project company and the sponsors of a US$373 million project finance deal in Vietnam. The Nghi Son Cement Company project is one of the largest project finance deals in Vietnam this year and one of the first deals to be financed with a multi-tranche limited recourse facility. It is also one of the first times that an offshore account has been used to channel finance directly to a project in Vietnam.

International firm Clifford Chance has opened a new office in Brazil. The Sao Paulo branch will focus on providing international legal advice for a range of existing clients, but will not practise Brazilian law. The firm has worked in the Brazilian market since the early 1990s, advising Brazilian corporates, as well as international underwriters , on global offerings. The practice has now expanded to assisting government and state-owned utilities on Brazil's extensive privatization programme, particularly for the water and telecommunications industries.

US firms Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and White & Case took the lead on the US$300 million 10-year issue by the state-owned Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) which closed on October 14. The issue, sold under Rule 144A in the US, incorporated a World Bank guarantee of principal and interest (on a partial basis), the first time the World Bank has provided a guarantee of principal and a single coupon payment on a rolling basis. Through this structure, Asian borrowers can access the global markets without incurring the risk premiums imposed since the financial downturn in July 1997.