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On July 1 1993, Sweden enacted new competition legislation. The Swedish Competition Act broadly conforms to the rules applying in the EU under the Treaty of Rome. As for notification of acquisitions, the Competition Act provides that the acquisition of a company or business (the object) in Sweden must be notified to the Swedish competition authority, Konkurrensverket, if the aggregate turnover of the purchaser and the object exceeds Skr4 billion (US$542 million) during the preceding business year. If the purchaser belongs to a group, the aggregate turnover of the entire group will be decisive when establishing the purchaser's turnover.

As investors are no doubt aware, 1997 is shaping up to be year of major privatizations among state-owned Spanish companies. This process has already begun with the recent public offering of the remaining state-held shares of Telefónica of España.

The May 1996 edition of International Financial Law Review (see page 50) reported that the New Zealand government planned to abolish the right of appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. The government has recently announced that it has scrapped this plan.

The Singapore Stock Exchange introduced a new Chapter 9A to its Listing Manual. The new provisions apply to transactions between:

In November 1996, the Consumer Council published a Competition Policy Report urging the government to enact competition laws on collusive agreements, abuse of dominant position, abuse of collective dominance and control of markets through mergers and acquisitions. The report was the first of its kind in Hong Kong, which at present does not have any laws governing monopolies, cartel-like supply structures and other anti-competitive practices.

From November 1 1996, the Ghana Stock Exchange adopted new rules establishing the Securities Clearing and Settlement House (SCSH), which serves as a centralized clearing and settlement facility for stock exchange trades. The SCSH is run on a day-to-day basis by the managing director of the stock exchange. Policy for the SCSH is set by the Stock Exchange Council.

The Arbitration and Mediation Centre of the Chamber of Commerce of Santiago has proved to be an efficient alternative for the resolution of business disputes in Chile. Around 25 disputes were submitted to the Centre in 1995 and 1996 and the majority were resolved by agreement of the parties with the participation of the arbitrators. Typically, the first phase of arbitration consists of a conciliation effort on the part of the arbitrator exploring alternatives to a negotiated settlement.

Poland began 1997 by implementing a unique mass privatization programme (MPP) through special purpose investment funds. The legal basis of this programme is the Law on National Investment Funds and their Privatization (the Law), dated April 30 1993 (Dz U No 44, 202, 1993 as modified).

CONSOB, the Italian regulator, is granted by LD No. 415/96 (enacted to implement the ISD Directive) the power to regulate trading of listed financial instruments in official markets. On December 10 1996 CONSOB approved Resolution 10358 which, in some cases, imposes trading of listed financial instruments in official markets and, in other cases, lays down the conditions for over-the-counter (OTC) transactions.

Under a Ministry of Justice proposal yet to be formally released, Finland would legislate to clarify the regulatory regime for netting in the securities and currency markets. The present uncertainty surrounding the legality of netting under Finnish insolvency laws would be largely dispelled by making netting (including close-out netting and multi-party netting) and certain related procedures expressly enforceable if based on terms, such as those of the ISDA master agreement, widely used in securities and currency trading.