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Peruvian company Minera Yanacocha was formed by a group of investors in 1992 to exploit a mine in the northern region of Cajamarca. The company today holds one of the most attractive gold deposits in the world, with an estimated production of 1 million ounces of gold a year. It is also the subject of shareholder litigation over shares worth more than US$100 million, now awaiting a final vote in the Supreme Court and representing the most important legal claim in Peru's mining history.

UK retail group WH Smith has sold its Waterstones book chain to a joint venture between UK's EMI Group and US Advent International for £300 million (US$495 million) in cash. The company, known as HMV Media Group, will also acquire EMI's HMV music retail group and Dillons bookshops. It is expected to rank as one of Europe's leading retailers of books, music, computer games and videos. Linklaters & Paines, London, advised WH Smith. Lead partner was corporate specialist Mark Stamp. Also involved were partners Ian Karet (intellectual property) and Bill Allan (competition). Titmuss Sainer Dechert, London, provided property advice to WH Smith.

UK firm Nabarro Nathanson has strengthened its presence in Paris. Partner and qualified avocat Frank Lipworth will set up his own firm, Cabinet Lipworth, which will operate as a Nabarro affiliate. The practice will concentrate on non-contentious commercial work with a view to breaking into the lucrative mergers and acquisitions market. Lipworth will work alongside Myriam Smith, a French avocat, using the office as a service post for Nabarro's London clients.

US firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom is advising Alltel Corporation in its bid for 360 Communications. Chicago firm Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal is counsel to 360 Communications. The proposed acquisition includes a stock swap, valued at US$4 billion, and the assumption of 360 Communications's US$1.8 billion debt. The companies have reached an accord on the merger and it has been approved by both boards.

Indonesia offers two options to creditors: bankruptcy and moratorium law. The bankruptcy law is more attractive and designed for their benefit. By Robert N Hornick of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, New York

Partners at UK law firm Wilde Sapte have voted to join the Arthur Andersen legal network. A heads of agreement document will be signed by early April. In London, Wilde Sapte will merge with Garretts, Andersen's existing UK firm. Andersen has been searching for a partner in the UK to bolster Garretts, and is understood to have approached other UK firms including Simmons & Simmons and Lovell White Durrant. It is likely Wilde Sapte's foreign offices will merge with Andersen's global network (which includes some 950 non-tax lawyers; see International Financial Law Review November 1997, page 25), although there is doubt over the future of the firm's Paris office. The managing partner of Wilde Sapte's office in France, Thomas McDonald, left SG Archibald in protest when it linked with Andersen. McDonald declines to comment.

The crisis in Asia has boosted the existing dangers of failures in project finance transactions. This article outlines the ways to find a solution to failures. By Troy Alexander of White & Case LLP, New York

Creditors and shareholders of insolvent Korean companies have three main attractive systems to protect their interests. The courts are showing increasing flexibility. By YS Oh and Keun Byung Lee of Bae, Kim & Lee, Korea

UK firm Cameron McKenna is to incorporate US firm Faegre & Benson's Almaty team into its Kazakstan office. Cameron McKenna adds Faegre's resident partner, Thomas Johnson, and three local Kazak lawyers to its Almaty office, which will now have a total of eight lawyers. This is a further rationalization of the Kazakstan legal market following the merger of Pepper Hamilton & Scheetz's Almaty office with Coudert Brothers (see International Financial Law Review, March 1998, page 4). Faegre & Benson has decided to withdraw from central Asia. James Stephenson, a partner in Minneapolis, says that opening a Kazakstan office in 1992 was based on one particular project. The firm maintained a presence in Almaty but did not have long term objectives in the region. "We reached a point where we needed to invest additional resources in order to capitalize on the office's success," he says. "It is our only office in the region and it simply didn't fit into our strategy." Stephenson says the firm's international practice will concentrate on serving US clients in Europe. Faegre & Benson has an office in Frankfurt and formed an association with UK firm Hobson Audley Hopkins & Wood in August 1997.

Serdar Paksoy, name partner and co-founder of leading Turkish firm Hergüner Bilgen & Paksoy, has walked out on the firm and set up his own practice. Paksoy & Co opened for business in Istanbul on January 1 1998. The reasons for the split are numerous, but include differing views on management, growth and practice areas, says Paksoy. Esin Taboglu, a senior associate at Hergüner Bilgen, has followed Paksoy and will join him as his partner in the new firm. Paksoy & Co has four associates in addition to the two partners, including a former associate at Hergüner Bilgen.