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French/UK firm Salans Hertzfeld & Heilbronn will merge with New York's Christy & Viener on January 1 1999. Given that previous mergers have effectively been takeovers of small boutiques by much larger firms, it is the first transatlantic merger of equals. The combined firm will have 85 partners and 193 other qualified lawyers. The Paris office has a total of 103 lawyers, with 84 in New York and 31 lawyers in London. "The firm is a different paradigm to the largest firms," says Robert Starr, a partner in the London office of Salans Hertzfeld. "This merger is unique not only in being transatlantic but also in the character of the firm. We are not now a Paris-based firm nor a London-based firm, and we will not be a New York-based firm."

Dutch employment services company, Randstadt, is acquiring Strategix from its Florida competitor Accustaff. The deal, valued at $850 million, will increase the temporary staffing business of Ranstadt's operations in the US. Ranstadt is being advised from New York by Davis Polk & Wardwell. The team of lawyers is headed by partners David Ferguson (tax), Michael Mollerus (tax) and Gail Flesher (environmental).

Paris electronics company Framatome Connectors is buying its US competitor Berg Electronics, St Louis, for $1.85 billion. The deal will make Framatome the second–largest manufacturer of electronic connectors. Framatome will pay cash for Berg's shares and will also assume $400 million of debt. Framatome is being advised by New York law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell. The partners assisting on the transaction are John McCarthy Jr (corporate), Winthrop Conrad Jr (corporate), Paul Kingsley (corporate) and Patrick Bradford (antitrust).

Two of Norway's big four law firms have scooped this year's largest restructuring of the country's banking sector. There is nothing unusual in that, except that there are not two, but three merging entities – Christiania Bank, the country's second largest lender, rival Fokus Bank and state-controlled Postbanken. The merger will create Norway's biggest financial services group, valued at NKr28 billion (US$3.6 billion). Wikborg Rein & Co is advising Christiania Bank with M&A partner Arne Didrik Kjornaes leading the team. Bugge Arentz-Hansen & Rasmussen (BAHR) accepted the delicate task of representing both Fokus and Postbanken.

President Jiang Zemin's recent call for restraint of the People's Liberation Army's widespread business activities is only part of a greater campaign to separate government and business in China. In the areas of tax and finance, two events highlight this tendency:

Additional First Provision of Law 28 of July 13 1998 on Installment Sales, in force as from September 13, has solved some of the traditional legal issues concerning financial leasing transactions. The law's main features are as follows.

For some years money laundering prevention measures of considerable effectiveness have applied to banks in Switzerland. These measures did not, however, cover the rest of the financial sector, and as a result the regulatory framework had large gaps. One of these was filled on April 1 1998 when the Federal Statute for the Combating of Money Laundering entered into force. It extends the standard of care exacted in the banking sector to financial intermediaries operating in the non-banking sector. If an attorney-at-law chooses to act as a financial intermediary within the meaning of the statute, he or she is fully subject to its regulatory requirements and may not, in particular, invoke professional secrecy if requested to disclose details of his or her financial activities.

The National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) announced on September 8 1998 that the auction of the so-called mirror companies is set for December 2 1998 on the Rio de Janeiro Stock Exchange. The mirror companies will be able to exploit fixed telephony in three regions: region one (Tele Norte Leste mirror), region two (Tele Centro Sul mirror) and region three (Telesp mirror), as well as in competition with Embratel (domestic and international long-distance services, telegraphy, maritime communications and data transmission). Accordingly, there will be four mirror companies, all starting from non-existing structures, which will require considerable investment in infrastructure.

The equities markets have seen some interesting deals despite the cold Russian winds spreading the Asian flu across the emerging markets. Nick Ferguson reports

The recent US$200 million international placement of 10-year subordinated notes by Komercni Banka, the Czech Republic's largest commercial bank, was in many respects a watershed. The transaction constituted the first international offering by a bank in central and eastern Europe of subordinated debt that qualifies for inclusion in the bank's regulatory capital base. At a time when Komercni Banka, like most other Czech banks, was required to increase its provisions for classified loans, the issue of the notes enabled the bank to shore up its balance sheet and maintain an acceptable risk capital ratio without issuing new equity. From a legal perspective, the transaction presented a number of novel issues requiring innovative solutions. One of the most vexing challenges was structuring a subordination clause that satisfied both the international marketplace and Czech regulators, because neither existing banking regulations nor the Czech Bankruptcy Act recognized a concept of subordination consistent with international practice and standards. This article examines how the lawyers on the transaction managed to fit a square peg into a round hole to accomplish this feat.