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Media and investment consortium Castle Transmission has issued the first sterling high-yield, or junk, bond. The £125 million (US$202 million) 9% guaranteed bond is due in 2007.

The Third Annual In-House Counsel Event

In spite of the decision in the Scandex case, the liability of directors of foreign-based financial services companies selling into the UK in contravention of FSA rules remains unclear. By David Greene of Edwin Coe, London

CITIC Pacific has sold its 8% stake in HongKong Telecom to China Everbright, a small business backed by China's state council, for HK$11.39 billion (US$1.47 billion).

The Finnish government recently proposed changes to the regulation of the subscription and purchase of shares in real estate funds aimed at creating a more secure and better regulated means of investing in real property. The new legislation would apply to public limited liability companies (referred to in the proposal as 'real estate funds') through which the public can participate in a fund primarily investing in real estate and shares in real estate companies.

Auditors' duty of care

Media multinational The News Corporation is to acquire Dallas marketing company Heritage Media. The tax-free merger will cost News Corporation about US$754 million. News Corporation intends to keep Heritage's marketing services operations, but to sell its radio and television broadcasters.

The recent fuss over different levels of disclosure in the US and UK by British Telecom is an example of the problems companies with multiple listings are open to. By Anthony J Herbert of Allen & Overy, London

UK firm Simmons & Simmons has effectively taken over its Italian associate firm, Grippo e Associati, based in Milan & Rome. The firms have operated together under the name Grippo, Associati e Simmons & Simmons since May 1993. The former managing partner of Simmons & Simmons, Alasdair Neil, has taken up the role of managing director of the Italian offices and is moving to Milan shortly. He says: "We chose to do this because the arrangement was working so well." The new name of the firm will be Simmons & Simmons Grippo. The move follows Clifford Chance's decision to bring some of its Italian partners into the UK partnership, and Freshfields opening Italian offices. However Neil denies it is a way of rewarding the Italian lawyers. "It is a way of taking things to their logical conclusion and demonstrates that they have fully become a part of Simmons & Simmons." Senior partner of the Italian offices, Eugenio Grippo, explains: "The original office was a joint venture, in which Simmons had a smaller interest than Grippo e Associati. Now the Italian group is part and parcel of Simmons & Simmons." The offices will retain his name as long as he stays with the firm, and also, he says, "to remind our clients that we are an Italian firm although we have become more international". As a result of the merger, three Italian partners become partners in Simmons & Simmons: Bruno Gattai, Filippo Pingue and Stefano Speroni. Grippo is already a partner of the UK firm.

Half of Denmark’s traditionally small, family-based firms are set to disappear, according to a recent report. Clare Hepburn looks at how lawyers there are meeting the challenges of liberalization