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• London firm Simmons & Simmons has recruited two banking partners from rival City firms. Nicholas Fisher, from Dibb Lupton Alsop, joins Simmons as a partner in the firm's transactional banking practice on December 1. Kim Walking, an asset finance specialist at Theodore Goddard, is joining the banking and capital markets department. • New York firm Carter, Ledyard & Milburn has added Masahiro Yoshimura, formerly at Holme Roberts & Owen, Denver, to its Japanese Practice Group. He will join the firm as an associate.

Law firms from the UK, US and Hong Kong have advised on the first ever Chinese GDRs listed on the London Stock Exchange. Zhejiang Southeast Electric Power Company's dual listing on the London and Shanghai exchanges will also be China's largest B-share offering. The company's total market capitalization will be more than US$200 million.

The German government has launched a three-pronged initiative aimed at overhauling Germany’s antitrust law and making it Euro-compatible. By Wolfgang von Meibom and Jan Byok of Wessing Berenberg-Gossler Zimmermann Lange, Düsseldorf

US firm Kelley Drye & Warren has affiliated with an Indonesian firm, Soebagjo, Roosdiono, Jatim & Djarot.The Jakarta firm, which employs 25 lawyers, will complement Kelley Drye's Hong Kong office. Stephen Stein, a partner in New York, will be responsible for the Indonesian Practice Group, though the Hong Kong partners will have a significant role in overseeing the office. Foreign firms' activities in Indonesia are limited, forcing most to affiliate with local firms. Kelley Drye follows Baker & McKenzie, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and several other large international firms into Jakarta. US-qualified associate Gregory McMahon will be the first lawyer to move across from the Hong Kong office. "We expect McMahon will be there full-time soon, after which it depends on how business develops," says Stein. "It is probably going to be quite slow for a while, but the potential for growth is there—currency problems notwithstanding."

MeritaNordbanken, the bank to be formed from the recently announced merger of Finland's Merita Bank and Sweden's Nordbanken, will be the second largest in Scandinavia by value of assets. Only Sweden's Handelsbanken will be larger.

The success of the first Europe-wide electronic securities market owes much to the new possibilities afforded by EU investment services legislation. By Dirk Tirez, general counsel of Easdaq, Brussels

Ford Credit's asset-backed programme issuer Globaldrive, has completed its debut issue, a Dm1 billion (US$566 million) securitization of US originated dealer floorplan loans. Globaldrive is the first corporate securitization vehicle in Europe which will allow for the issue of separately rated notes backed by discrete asset pools from different countries.

Poland's Bank Handlowy has completed its US$600 million privatization. US firm White & Case advised the bank and Clifford Chance represented Schroders, the financial advisers. JP Morgan, Swedbank and the Zurich Group agreed to acquire 24% of the bank in the core investor sale, which was the final element in the three-stage offering. Bank Handlowy is now the largest company quoted on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.

The extent to which foreign debtors and foreign creditors are subject to the US Bankruptcy Code is one of the grey areas in this field of law. A recent case decided by a US bankruptcy court in Houston, Texas, In re Jacobo Xacur (96-48538), sheds some light on this troublesome area.

Setting up a representative office is the first and indispensable step towards establishing a banking presence in China. Philip Gilligan and Steven Blayney of White & Case, Hong Kong, explain how