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UK retail group WH Smith has sold its Waterstones book chain to a joint venture between UK's EMI Group and US Advent International for £300 million (US$495 million) in cash. The company, known as HMV Media Group, will also acquire EMI's HMV music retail group and Dillons bookshops. It is expected to rank as one of Europe's leading retailers of books, music, computer games and videos. Linklaters & Paines, London, advised WH Smith. Lead partner was corporate specialist Mark Stamp. Also involved were partners Ian Karet (intellectual property) and Bill Allan (competition). Titmuss Sainer Dechert, London, provided property advice to WH Smith.

UK brewing and leisure group Bass agreed on February 20 to buy Inter-Continental Hotels and Resorts for £1.78 billion (US$2.9 billion). The acquisition gives Bass a leading global position in the luxury hotel market and complements its mid-market Holiday Inns operation. Under the deal, by which it beat its rival, US hotel group Marriott International, Bass will pay US$1.4 billion in cash, repay US$450 million in debt, and assume a further US$1.1 billion in debt. If US and EU regulators approve, the takeover could be completed by March 31. Davis Polk & Wardwell, New York, advised Bass in the US; the team included corporate partners Paul Kingsley, Patrick Dore, and Michael Mollerus. UK counsel was Linklaters & Paines, London, led by corporate partners David Cheyne and Christopher Johnson-Gilbert. Representing Inter-Continental Hotels and Resorts, and its owner, the Saison group of Japan, was US firm Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, New York. UK counsel was Stephenson Harwood in London.

The pressures of internationalization are driving Benelux firms to look beyond their own borders for potential allies in the global market of the future. Nick Ferguson reports

Peruvian company Minera Yanacocha was formed by a group of investors in 1992 to exploit a mine in the northern region of Cajamarca. The company today holds one of the most attractive gold deposits in the world, with an estimated production of 1 million ounces of gold a year. It is also the subject of shareholder litigation over shares worth more than US$100 million, now awaiting a final vote in the Supreme Court and representing the most important legal claim in Peru's mining history.

Chilean companies are no longer able to supply all the finance they need domestically. This article explains how they can raise money through Eurobonds. By Ignacio Arteaga-Echeverria and Cristian Herrera-Barriga of Cariola Abogados, Santiago

Creditors and shareholders of insolvent Korean companies have three main attractive systems to protect their interests. The courts are showing increasing flexibility. By YS Oh and Keun Byung Lee of Bae, Kim & Lee, Korea

The crisis in Asia has boosted the existing dangers of failures in project finance transactions. This article outlines the ways to find a solution to failures. By Troy Alexander of White & Case LLP, New York

US firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom is advising Alltel Corporation in its bid for 360 Communications. Chicago firm Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal is counsel to 360 Communications. The proposed acquisition includes a stock swap, valued at US$4 billion, and the assumption of 360 Communications's US$1.8 billion debt. The companies have reached an accord on the merger and it has been approved by both boards.

Compagnie Générale des Eaux (CGE), the French utilities conglomerate, is to acquire the French media group Havas, in a Ffr40 billion (US$6.5 billion) deal. CGE was already, since last year, the dominant shareholder in the media group. Jean-François Prat, name partner at Bredin Prat, Paris, advises CGE.

US firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, advised insurance group Exel on its US$2.9 billion agreed bid for rival insurer Mid Ocean. Davis Polk & Wardwell advised Mid Ocean. Both businesses are based in Bermuda. The combined organization will rank, on the basis of market capitalization, as one of the 25 largest property insurers in the world. Coordinating Wachtell Lipton's team is corporate partner Craig Wasserman. The lawyers for Davis Polk include corporate specialists George Bason and John Knight and tax partner William Gifford.