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US insurance company Cigna Corporation agreed to acquire managed care concern Healthsource for US$1.4 billion. The deal boosts Cigna's position as a leading provider of healthcare and is part of a trend towards consolidation in the health-insurance industry.

Bermuda-based, New York-quoted reinsurance company Partner Re is to take over French insurer Société Anonyme Française de Réassurance (SAFR). The acquisition was prompted by Swiss Re's Swfr1.1 billion (US$752 million) offer for the remaining shares of SAFR, of which it owns 21%. The outstanding shares belong to rival French insurers AGF and Athéna. Once Swiss Re has acquired these shares, it will sell SAFR to Partner Re.

US firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy is rebuilding its project finance practice in London after the departure of four project finance partners to rival firm Shearman & Sterling last year. Partner Thomas Siebens has returned to London from a three-year residency in the firm's Singapore office. He will develop the global capital markets reach of the firm's project finance and emerging markets group.

Following a review of its international practice, German firm Pünder, Volhard, Weber & Axster has decided to open a Hong Kong office before the July 1 handover to China. Peter Nägele, Frankfurt partner with the firm which heads the Pünder Group, says there will be several partners there concentrating on banking and finance work. "It will not just be a rep office: we will be serving German and European clients and aim to be profitable from day one," he says. Of Pünder's German rivals, only Brückhaus Westrick Stegemann has an Asian presence through its offices in Hong Kong and Tokyo. Pünder managing partner Thomas Gasteyer says the firm had planned the move for some time and hoped to open there before the end of June subject to completing the relevant paperwork. Gasteyer expects the new office will become a joint practice of the six-member Pünder Group. "I think this will be a joint office but we have not yet received replies from all the other firms on our proposal," says Gasteyer. "In all likelihood I expect it will."

French firm Giroux Buhagiar & Associés is to merge with the Paris office of Stibbe Simont Monahan Duhot. On July 1, Giroux Buhagiar's 23 lawyers will move to Stibbe Simont's 70-lawyer office. The merged firm will be known as Stibbe Simont Monahan Duhot & Giroux. Stibbe Simont in Paris specializes in mergers and acquisitions as well as tax, competition and EU law. Giroux Buhagiar concentrates on banking and financial law.

Cross-default clause amendments have become standard in many derivative contracts. But they are not always welcome, argues Ebo Coleman, barrister, London, proposing alternative wording

Growing numbers of foreign futures brokers are taking advantage of the registration exemptions offered by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission. By Michael S Sackheim of Brown & Wood LLP, New York

A three-tier mechanism now permits foreign issuers better access to the Brazilian markets. By Sergio Spinelli Silva Jr of Mattos Filho, Veiga Filho, Marrey Jr, Moherdaui e Quiroga, São Paulo

Costly asset management failures are dramatic evidence of the need for third party audits of advisers’ practices, says Marcia MacHarg of Debevoise & Plimpton, New York

The new Law of the Mexican Institute of Social Security is set to enter into force on July 1 1997, from which date employees will be entitled to have their pension funds managed by 'retirement fund administrators' (administradores de fondos para el retiro or 'afores'), which can be private bodies. Funds are at present managed by the Social Security Institute.