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Nomura International, the Japanese investment bank, has bought 4,000 pubs in a £1.2 billion (US$1.9 billion) purchase from Intreprenneur. Nomura bought the pubs, owned by Grand Metropolitan and Fosters Brewing Group, through the Grand Pub Company.

Travelers Group, the US financial services group, is to pay US$9 billion for Salomon, the holding company for Wall Street investment bank Salomon Brothers. Salomon is believed to have sought the merger after heavy third-quarter losses. Travelers will merge Salomon into its own domestic brokerage business, Smith Barney.

The former UK Association of Compliance Officers has been re-launched in London as the Compliance Institute six days before the new super-regulator is unveiled by UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown. The Institute has been set up to provide a formal qualification and training package for compliance staff. "Although new legislation and the work of regulatory bodies have helped, financial misconduct and the breach of financial regulations remain rife," says Clive Warburton, president of the Institute. "The Compliance Institute's main purpose is to advance the standards of competence among compliance staff and ultimately to elevate the compliance ethos within regulated businesses."

UK firm Lovell White Durrant has hired capital markets specialist Philip Boys from rival UK firm Slaughter and May. Boys will be a partner in Lovell's Paris office. "We have been doing a lot of capital markets work out of Paris for Indosuez and a number of French banks," says David Hudd, partner in the London capital markets group. "Philip will be involved there, where he has a dual qualification [as a solicitor and avocat]." Boys has wide experience of debt and equity work after 12 years as a partner with Slaughter and May. Reaction to Boys's defection reflects Slaughter and May's receding profile in international capital markets work (see IFLRev survey, February 1997 page 19).

Paris-based Salans Hertzfeld & Heilbronn is to merge with London's Harris Rosenblatt & Kramer. The new firm will practise in London under the name Salans Hertzfeld & Heilbronn HRK. Harris Rosenblatt should be a good fit with Salans Hertzfeld; both firms are active in financing and litigation and the UK firm's English law capacity will enhance the new firm's cross-border financing skills. "In London we focused on international finance work, but had no domestic practice," says George Macdonald, a Salans Hertzfeld partner in London. "Harris Rosenblatt's practice is complementary and its skills are transferable into the international market."

With the enactment of the Pension Law (No. 1,732) of November 29 1996, the pension and social security systems in Bolivia have been reformed and a Pensions Superintendency created to oversee their implementation.

Stephen Williams, general counsel and joint secretary of Unilever, talks to Samantha Wigham

BAT Industries is undergoing a £30 billion reconstruction involving the merger of its financial services arm with Zurich Insurance Group. BAT's tobacco business British American Tobacco plc will be listed separately in London and the merged financial services group will be held by a Swiss-registered operating company. BAT shareholders will own 45% of this company through a UK-listed holding company, Allied Zurich, and Zurich shareholders will own 55% through a Swiss-listed holding company.

Japanese restrictions on foreign law firms will remain despite determined international pressure for liberalization. A source within the Ministry of Justice commission has confirmed that the report, to be published next month, will conclude that foreign firms will not be allowed to employ Japanese lawyers (bengoshi). It will be a huge disappointment for international firms in Tokyo at the time Japan is planning its economic liberalization programme, or 'big bang' (see IFLRev September1997, page 27). Reform will be limited to relaxing the rules on the joint venture system, which allows for limited associations between Japanese and foreign law firms. But this is not expected to increase the small number of international firms which have so far developed joint ventures.

Poland's Bank Handlowy has completed its US$600 million privatization. US firm White & Case advised the bank and Clifford Chance represented Schroders, the financial advisers. JP Morgan, Swedbank and the Zurich Group agreed to acquire 24% of the bank in the core investor sale, which was the final element in the three-stage offering. Bank Handlowy is now the largest company quoted on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.