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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

Dutch company Philips Media is selling its 50% stake in United and Philips Communications, the largest privately-owned cable system in Europe, to its joint venture partner, American concern United International Holdings. The deal is worth US$425 million.

Cross-default clause amendments have become standard in many derivative contracts. But they are not always welcome, argues Ebo Coleman, barrister, London, proposing alternative wording

Perth firm Parker & Parker is to merge with the Perth office of Australian firm Freehill Hollingdale & Page. The merged firm will have 53 partners and 120 fee-earners, and will be known as Freehill Hollingdale & Page. The merger should take effect in May, and the firm will be based in Parker & Parker's offices in Perth. The addition of Parker & Parker's 86 lawyers will make Freehill Hollingdale Australia's largest law firm, with over 180 partners and 400 other lawyers in offices in Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra.

US filter and separation systems company Pall Corporation has acquired Gelman Sciences for about US$237 million of Pall common stock.

Chinese conglomerate CITIC Pacific acquired a 20% stake in China Light & Power, the monopoly provider of electricity to the Kowloon peninsula. CITIC Pacific, a subsidiary of the state-owned China International Trust and Investment Corporation, already has stakes in the airline Cathay Pacific and various trading and property companies. The deal may allow China Light & Power to supply the Chinese mainland with electricity.

Leading international Italian firm Studio Legale Fondato da Francesco Carnelutti has opened an office in Rome. The office will be integrated with the firm's Milan office.

Susanna Beltramo and Marina Savastano of Studio Legale Beltramo, Rome, look at the latest update to Italian legislation on real estate funds and Fabio Brunelli of Studio Di Tanno, Rome, looks at the tax aspects

• US firm Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly has opened an office in Geneva. Jean Russotto, managing partner in the firm's Brussels office, will work out of the office of Swiss firm Cabinet Mayor in Geneva. The new office is to complement the work the firm does in Brussels in financial services, corporate, trade and tax law.

German firm Pünder, Volhard, Weber & Axster looks set to develop a UK finance practice by appointing senior UK banking and finance lawyers in Frankfurt and Düsseldorf. Recruitment advertisements offering partnership and senior assistant positions in a large German practice with international offices have appeared in the UK press with consultants sworn to secrecy. Rumours that Germany's other financial heavyweights Bruckhaus Westrick Stegemann and Hengeler Mueller Weitzel Wirtz were in the market have been denied, but at Pünder, where there are already US and UK lawyers, partner Kersten von Schenk does not deny that moves are underway. "At this stage I have no comments to make," says von Schenk.