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By Lee Suet-Fern of Wong Partnership, Singapore

Germany's Bayer, one of the world's leading suppliers to the polyurethane industry, has announced that it intends to acquire the global polyols business of Lyondell Chemical.

By Tsunemasa Terai and Brian A Yeager of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, New York

Warner-Lambert and American Home Products (AHP) announced on November 4 that they intend to combine in what they referred to as a merger of equals.

Clifford Chance has advised Deutsche Bank on the first securitization of receivables from a single airline lessee in Europe — a euro 195 million ($210 million) deal for Iberia. The transaction applies a well-developed US structure in Europe for the first time, creating a product that could radically change air finance in the region. It allows single airlines to raise money through securitization as an alternative to the conventional bank-loan and leasing markets, which are increasingly expensive and becoming less liquid.

LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae Moscow

Following reports of discontent at the decision to merge with Clifford Chance, the Paris office of Rogers & Wells has agreed to become the first overseas office for New York's Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP.

Matsushita of Japan and Siemens of Germany launched the IPO of an approximately 75% stake in their joint venture, Epcos, on October 15. The offering is a dual listing on the New York and Frankfurt stock exchanges. It raised approximately euro 1.3 billion ($1.4 billion), making it one of the largest IPOs on the Frankfurt stock market. Epcos is one of Europe's largest manufacturers of passive electronic components.

Structuring management buy-outs

Baker & McKenzie is advising on the most recent privatization in Eastern Europe. In mid-October, the government of Croatia sold a 35% stake in its telecoms operator, Hrvatske Telekomunikacije, to Deutsche Telekom for $850 million. The sale to Deutsche Telekom followed a successful bidding competition with a consortium comprising Telia and Telenor.