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The UK government has agreed to sell the Married Quarters Estate of the Armed Forces to the Annington Group for £1.6 billion (US$2.5 billion). The transaction, one of the largest ever UK conveyancing deals, requires the sale of 2400 properties to Annington and a sale and leaseback of 55,000 properties under 999-year head leases.

• US firm Weil Gotshal & Manges has hired senior corporate associate Andrew Harting from the New York office of UK firm Freshfields. He will join the London office of Weil Gotshal & Manges.

In Central and South America lawyers are experiencing mixed fortunes as one of the world's most exciting markets digests the combined effects of the Mexican peso crisis, Nafta and privatization. Richard Forster reports

In June 1996, the Securities Committee of China's State Council issued a notice on the recommendation of the fourth batch of mainland enterprises for overseas listings. What is new is the degree of participation it allows foreign investment bankers in selecting prospective listing candidates. The submission of an analytical report prepared by the underwriter on the reorganization and listing prospects of the recommended enterprise is now required. Thus foreign investment bankers will be involved in the early stages of the screening process.

Publication of a draft Third Financial Markets Promotion Act (Drittes Finanzmarktförderungsgesetz) aimed at further enhancing the economic and legal framework for the operation of the German capital markets is now imminent. A number of the key changes to be introduced by the proposed Act are:

A question frequently raised both among members of the offshore community and the authorities in Cyprus is whether the existing favourable offshore tax regime will be affected in any way by the proposed accession to the EU.

Provisional Measure 1541 allowing the federal government to give financial support to state governments willing to privatize state banks or to liquidate or transform them into non-financing institutions was enacted on September 5 1996. The programme will be funded by a federal government bond issue, but the public debt is expected to fall after the privatization of state assets.

Austria enacted a major revision of corporate law on July 1. The aim of the EU Company Law Amendment Act is to complete the harmonization of Austrian corporate law with EU company law. The Act applies to all corporate entities, but some changes are of particular importance to the Austrian banking sector. They relate to a bank's acquisition of its own stock, reasons for the exclusion of certain auditors of banks, financial reporting of banks and creditors' protection in the case of mergers of financial institutions.

The following is a summary of recent developments:

The Bankruptcy (Désastre) (Jersey) Law, 1990 contains provisions on disqualifying directors of a company which has been declared 'en désastre' (bankrupt).