Search results for

Chilean companies are no longer able to supply all the finance they need domestically. This article explains how they can raise money through Eurobonds. By Ignacio Arteaga-Echeverria and Cristian Herrera-Barriga of Cariola Abogados, Santiago

On February 19, the Bank of Botswana liberalized exchange controls. The liberalization falls short of a complete abolition of exchange controls, although this may occur in the next six to eight months.

Taking of evidence in Switzerland for a trial abroad is governed by three different bodies of law:

Two recent decisions have underlined the enduring significance of subrogation in legal practice. A person who has this right or remedy is known as the subrogatee. The subrogatee stands in the shoes of another person to enjoy the benefit of securities, claims and remedies available to that other person.

Thailand’s new Bankruptcy Act should protect insolvent companies while providing incentives to foreign creditors to inject funds to reorganize businesses. By Kitipong Urapeepatanapong, Sawanee Sethsathira and Chirachai Okanurak of Baker & McKenzie, Bangkok

The largest US merger between east and west coast law firms is being contemplated by New York firm Reid & Priest and San Francisco's Thelen, Marrin, Johnson & Bridges LLP. The combined firm would have about 350 lawyers. Meanwhile, Reid & Priest has also linked with ambitious Indian firm Titus & Radhakrishnan. Richard Gary, Thelen Marrin's chairman, says: "The conversations are at a very serious stage. I expect there will be a decision within the next few weeks." A spokesperson for Reid & Priest refuses to comment.

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.

UK firm Norton Rose is disbanding its national group of associated firms, the Norton Rose M5 Group, to concentrate on an international strategy. The group unanimously agreed to wind up its formal links by the end of July 1998. One possibility was that the group would eventually become a single national firm. However, a decision was taken not to merge in 1993, and the firms began to pursue their own individual strategies, most notably when two members of the group, Booth & Co, and Addleshaw Sons & Latham merged last year.

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

Philippe Dewast, legal director at Eurotunnel, Calais, talks to Nick Ferguson