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A recent decision of the Copenhagen City Court confirms that Danish courts take a strict view on insider trading (see International Financial Law Review, March 1997, page 58). A board member of a Danish company was sentenced to five months' imprisonment plus confiscation of about US$100,000 of profit.

The ministry of finance is preparing a government Bill containing proposed amendments to the Act on Investment Funds. The aim is for the Bill to be ratified and become effective by the end of this year.

The recent merger of the German Futures Exchange DTB (Deutsche Terminbörse) and the Swiss Futures Exchange SOFFEX (Swiss Options and Financial Futures Exchange) created EUREX (European Exchange) as a single platform for pan-European trading and clearing of standardized futures and options under harmonized rules. EUREX is a fully electronic exchange based in Frankfurt and Zurich, with access points in Amsterdam, Chicago, London and Paris (and future access points in Helsinki, Madrid and New York).

The proposed Council Directive on savings income was circulated by the European Commission on June 4 1998. Its rationale is the perceived scope for tax avoidance created by a lack of coordination of national systems for the taxation of interest payments on savings. It will also tax interest on public debt securities and bonds.

The key to Latvia’s future lies in Brussels. Membership of the EU would speed the country towards greater political and economic stability. Exclusion from the latest round of EU enlargement discussions was a major setback. Latvia failed to make sufficient progress with economic and other reforms for entry, but there are many good indicators. Inflation is the lowest in former communist states. Growth is expected to exceed 5% again in 1998 and the budget is in surplus. The national currency, the lat, is kept stable by an independent central bank.

Orange, the UK mobile phone operator, has raised nearly US$1 billion with a high yield debt issue, the largest-ever by a European company. The US$996 million high yield debt was issued in Euros, American dollars and sterling. Advising Orange is London firm Linklaters & Paines. The partners assisting are Brigid Rentoul (corporate) and Tom Wells (international finance).

US drugs company Johnson & Johnson is buying orthopaedic supplies company DePuy for US$3.5 billion. Roche Holding, the Swiss pharmaceutical company, is selling its 84% stake in DePuy to the company. Cravath Swaine & Moore is representing Johnson & Johnson of New Jersey. The team of lawyers includes partners Robert Kindler (corporate), Robert Townsend (corporate) and Stephen Gordon (tax).

Allen & Overy's Frankfurt office has poached two partners from rival firms. Johannes Bruski was a partner with German firm Bruckhaus Westrick Heller Löber. Reinhard Hermes was formerly a partner in US firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius's Frankfurt office. Bruski specializes in asset finance and cross-border leasing. He is also experienced in corporate mergers & acquisitions. He joins Allen & Overy's asset finance practice.

UK firm Linklaters & Paines has been hired by British Petroleum for its US$50 billion agreed takeover of Amoco in the US. The oil company merger is the world's largest industrial merger and lawyer's fees are likely to be considerable. The resulting company, BP Amoco plc, will have a market capitalization of US$110 billion with 100,000 employees worldwide. It will be one of the three biggest oil companies in the world along with Royal Dutch/Shell and Exxon. The equity split will be 60% to BP shareholders and 40% to Amoco shareholders. Advising Amoco on the transaction in the US are Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz partners Andrew Brownstein and Martin Lipton. UK counsel to Amoco is Freshfields, with a team including senior partner Anthony Salz, corporate partners William Lawes and Neil Radford, EU law partners Rachel Brandenburger and John Davies, and tax partners Francis Sandison and Sarah Falk.

German firm Hengeler Mueller Weitzel Wirtz has put together the innovative system that will clear the majority of euro transactions once the single European currency is introduced. Despite claims that it was impossible to produce a multilateral cross-border netting system whose rights and obligations would be upheld in the various jurisdictions in insolvency situations, the new Single Obligation structure, which provides the basis for the EBA clearing system, meets all criteria and has won acclaim from all participating countries.