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• New York's Chadbourne & Parke LLP has made seven lawyers partners. They are: in Singapore, Bruce Rader (corporate and project finance); in Moscow, Mikhail Rozenberg (Russian practice); in Washington DC, Thomas Hechl (Russian practice and project finance); and in New York, Douglas Fried (project finance), Claude Serfilippi (corporate finance), Drew Wintringham (intellectual property) and Nancy Zajac (leasing).

What do these words mean in the context of a financial agreement? Financial lawyers are very familiar with this phrase because it is included in most loan participation agreements and syndicated loan agreements for the purpose of protecting the lead or agent bank.

A consortium led by Tarmac has won a contract to design and construct a general NHS hospital. The contract, which includes the operation of the hospital's non-clinical services for at least 25 years, is worth £143 million (US$232 million). The deal is the first major private finance initiative (PFI) project in the British health sector.

German sportswear company Adidas is acquiring French rival Salomon, best known for skiing equipment, for Ffr8 billion (US$1.3 billion). The first part of the transaction is the purchase of 100% of Sport Developpement, a private family company owning 39% of Salomon shares representing 56% of the company's voting rights. A public offer will follow. Adidas will become the second largest sportswear manufacturer, behind US rival Nike.

New York mutual life insurer Metropolitan Life Insurance has acquired Californian-based Security First Group from London Insurance Group. The deal is worth US$377 million.

The German Securities Trading Supervisory Authority’s latest guidelines for the conduct of investment services business are out. Alexander Vogt and Peter Waltz of Oppenhoff & Rädler, Frankfurt, assess them in the context of existing rules

The latest no-action letters from the US SEC expand the exemptions available to unregistered dealers. By Charles S Gittleman, Julia E Moran and Eva Don-Siemion of Shearman & Sterling, New York

UK firm Linklaters & Paines is set to open its first South American office with a representative office in São Paulo. The firm has done a large amount of debt work out of Brazil but the intention is to target the potential for private sector equity work. "During the next five years we are going to see a lot of equity stuff coming out of South America so putting a team down in Brazil will put us in a very good position," says Nick Eastwell, a partner with Linklaters in London who specializes in emerging market securities.

As with all emerging markets, securitization offers Peru new forms of debt instrument with a greatly reduced risk of default. New rules should boost the developing market. By Esteban Mancuso of White & Case, New York

US chemicals group DuPont is paying £1.8 billion (US$3 billion) for the titanium dioxide and polyester businesses of the UK's ICI. The deal is part of ICI's programme to fund its £4.9 billion acquisition of Unilever's speciality chemicals businesses.