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Interim Services, a Florida staffing company, is paying US$575 million for British recruitment and staffing business Michael Page Group. The acquisition is proof of the growing international importance of the temporary service industry. It will allow Interim Services to expand through Europe and east Asia.

French firm Giroux Buhagiar & Associés is to merge with the Paris office of Stibbe Simont Monahan Duhot. On July 1, Giroux Buhagiar's 23 lawyers will move to Stibbe Simont's 70-lawyer office. The merged firm will be known as Stibbe Simont Monahan Duhot & Giroux. Stibbe Simont in Paris specializes in mergers and acquisitions as well as tax, competition and EU law. Giroux Buhagiar concentrates on banking and financial law.

Canadian oil and gas company Morrison Petroleums and rival Northstar Energy Corporation are to merge. The merged company will have a market capitalization of nearly US$1.3 billion. It expects to launch a bid of approximately US$325 million for its outstanding shares as soon as the merger is complete.

UK firms have ambitious plans for US law capability and expansion. But they are facing competition from US, regional and big six-linked firms. Samantha Wigham reports

American Electric Power and Public Service Company of Colorado made an agreed £1.5 billion (US$2.43 billion) offer for UK energy company Yorkshire Electricity. The two American companies are using their joint subsidiary Yorkshire Holdings for the bid. The offer follows the acquisition last year of four British electricity companies by US corporations and is in line with a trend towards cross-border utilities acquisitions. The financial advisers to Yorkshire Electricity are NM Rothschild and Goldman Sachs International. Merrill Lynch is advising Yorkshire Holdings.

Grimaldi & Clifford Chance has opened an office in Padua. This is the third office in Italy the firm has established since the association between Grimaldi e Associati and UK law firm Clifford Chance began in 1993. The office will initially have five lawyers led by two partners, Paolo Rulli and Gianandrea Rizzieri. Rulli has moved from the firm's Rome office and Rizzieri joins from local partnership Studio Rizzieri. Both specialize in corporate and international trade law, with Rizzieri providing experience in litigation and arbitration. Associates Federica Greggio and Susanna Rizzieri specialize in international transactions, contracts and litigation.

The Korean government has recognized that depositors’ interests must be safeguarded by the state. But improvements need to be made, argues Dong Won Ko of the Institute for Monetary & Economic Research, The Bank of Korea, Seoul

Growing numbers of foreign futures brokers are taking advantage of the registration exemptions offered by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission. By Michael S Sackheim of Brown & Wood LLP, New York

Allied Irish Banks (AIB) has acquired US bank holding company Dauphin Deposit Corporation for US$1.36 billion. The acquisition, made by Allied Irish Banks' US subsidiary First Maryland Bancorp, brings the banking group closer to its goal of owning a US bank with assets of more than US$20 billion.

Texas buy-out company Texas Pacific Group is offering an undisclosed amount, believed to be at least US$800 million, for Del Monte Foods, the US's largest branded producer and distributor of tinned fruit and vegetables.