Search results for

On August 21 1998, the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange circulated among the companies quoted on its market, the answer that the Comisión Nacional de Valores (the securities and exchange commission, CNV) gave to the question posed by the Mercado de Valores de Buenos Aires as to whether the fall in stock prices, caused by the global stock market crisis could be construed as constituting serious damage to the quoted corporations, thereby allowing them to buy back their own shares.

The Danish parliament has adopted an act harmonizing rules regarding investments made by certain financial institutions (Act No. 490/1998) such as life insurance companies, pension funds and LD pensions. Financial institutions will be subject to limitations with regard to the proportion of their investment assets placed in certain securities. Before the act, investments in shares were limited to 35-40% of the total assets of the institutions. The purpose of the act is to attract venture capital to Danish businesses and to increase the proportion of foreign shares held by the institutions.

Michael Alcamo of White & Case, New York explains how to draft prospectuses in plain English and asks the SEC what issuers can expect from the new rules

US firms Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and White & Case took the lead on the US$300 million 10-year issue by the state-owned Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) which closed on October 14. The issue, sold under Rule 144A in the US, incorporated a World Bank guarantee of principal and interest (on a partial basis), the first time the World Bank has provided a guarantee of principal and a single coupon payment on a rolling basis. Through this structure, Asian borrowers can access the global markets without incurring the risk premiums imposed since the financial downturn in July 1997.

UK firm Allen & Overy has provided advice to the project company and the sponsors of a US$373 million project finance deal in Vietnam. The Nghi Son Cement Company project is one of the largest project finance deals in Vietnam this year and one of the first deals to be financed with a multi-tranche limited recourse facility. It is also one of the first times that an offshore account has been used to channel finance directly to a project in Vietnam.

Spanish firm Uria & Menéndez has added 20 lawyers to its Madrid office by absorbing rival Bufete Armero. Managing partner Rodrigo Uria says of the new lawyers: "In practical terms they are two teams. One is a corporate, capital markets, finance team, which is in principal the same thing as we are already doing here, reinforcing our capabilities in this area. The other team is a team of litigators. Litigation is the rising star at Uria & Menéndez." Three Bufete Armero lawyers will become Uria partners: Coloma Armero and Luis Vidal, both corporate lawyers, and Javier Ruiz, a litigator. In July of this year Armero lost two tax partners to another of Spain's big firms, Cuatrecasas. Bufete Armero had been struggling since the death of founder Jose Maria Armero three years ago.

Lex Mundi, the international association of law firms, has decided to change its policy of excluding firms in New York, London, Washington DC, California, Texas and Illinois. It is now seeking one of the leading firms in each location to join its members. Washington DC's Steptoe & Johnson LLP is the first firm to take advantage of Lex Mundi's policy change to join the international alliance.

International firm Clifford Chance has opened a new office in Brazil. The Sao Paulo branch will focus on providing international legal advice for a range of existing clients, but will not practise Brazilian law. The firm has worked in the Brazilian market since the early 1990s, advising Brazilian corporates, as well as international underwriters , on global offerings. The practice has now expanded to assisting government and state-owned utilities on Brazil's extensive privatization programme, particularly for the water and telecommunications industries.

• US law firm White & Case has announced the appointement of five new partners. Michael Bühler, who specializes in international commercial arbitration and international business transactions, has been named partner at the firm's Paris office. International tax partner Barrye Wall has joined the Los Angeles office. Mark Powell, a specialist in European competition and trade law, has been named a partner at the Brussels office. Partner James McGuire has been hired by the New York office as a specialist in white collar crime, complex civil litigation and corporate internal investigations. John Sarchio has joined the New York office as partner. He is head of the firm's Insurance Industry Practice Group. • Paul Gonson, attorney for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has announced that he will retire at the end of the year. Mr Gonson became SECs counsel in 1979 and has argued more than 100 appellate cases on behalf of the Commission, including cases before the Supreme Court and all US Courts of Appeal. He will continue to act as part-time consultant to the Commission following his retirement.

Peter Langley, CEO at IP consulting firm Origin and consultant to Sidley & Austin, argues that in the future the owners of patents to financial products will control financial services