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The Finnish government recently proposed changes to the regulation of the subscription and purchase of shares in real estate funds aimed at creating a more secure and better regulated means of investing in real property. The new legislation would apply to public limited liability companies (referred to in the proposal as 'real estate funds') through which the public can participate in a fund primarily investing in real estate and shares in real estate companies.

The government of Panama has sold a 49% stake in the country's national telephone company, Intel, in central America's first telecoms privatization. UK telecoms company Cable & Wireless paid US$632 million in cash for the stake, beating rival bidder GTE Corporation of Stamford.

Mireille Quirina, chief counsel Europe for Du Pont, talks to Diana Bentley

UK firm Simmons & Simmons has effectively taken over its Italian associate firm, Grippo e Associati, based in Milan & Rome. The firms have operated together under the name Grippo, Associati e Simmons & Simmons since May 1993. The former managing partner of Simmons & Simmons, Alasdair Neil, has taken up the role of managing director of the Italian offices and is moving to Milan shortly. He says: "We chose to do this because the arrangement was working so well." The new name of the firm will be Simmons & Simmons Grippo. The move follows Clifford Chance's decision to bring some of its Italian partners into the UK partnership, and Freshfields opening Italian offices. However Neil denies it is a way of rewarding the Italian lawyers. "It is a way of taking things to their logical conclusion and demonstrates that they have fully become a part of Simmons & Simmons." Senior partner of the Italian offices, Eugenio Grippo, explains: "The original office was a joint venture, in which Simmons had a smaller interest than Grippo e Associati. Now the Italian group is part and parcel of Simmons & Simmons." The offices will retain his name as long as he stays with the firm, and also, he says, "to remind our clients that we are an Italian firm although we have become more international". As a result of the merger, three Italian partners become partners in Simmons & Simmons: Bruno Gattai, Filippo Pingue and Stefano Speroni. Grippo is already a partner of the UK firm.

The first International Financial Law Review survey of the mergers and acquisitions market has identified the leading firms advising on deals worth US$1 billion or more. By Richard Forster

The law in the United States relating to electronic funds transfers is new and undeveloped. Article 4A, governing these types of transactions, has been added to the Uniform Commercial Code and adopted by many states, including New York. A case recently reported, Sheerbonnet Ltd v American Express Bank Ltd, 951 F Supp 403 (SDNY 1995), sheds some light on the interplay between Article 4A and the common law.

US firms are putting less weight on lawyer billings and are using more objective criteria to determine partner compensation, according to a survey report published by consultants Altman Weil Pensa. The firm's previous survey of this sort, in 1993, found that personal fees billed was the most important factor in calculating lawyers' compensation. The new survey has found that business origination has become the most significant determinant.

The recent fuss over different levels of disclosure in the US and UK by British Telecom is an example of the problems companies with multiple listings are open to. By Anthony J Herbert of Allen & Overy, London

On June 16 the Ministry of Justice submitted a Draft Takeover Code introducing a mandatory public tender offer to all shareholders of listed target companies (excluding companies whose shares are traded in the over-the-counter market [Sonstiger Wertpapierhandel]). The Draft Code provides that the mandatory offer will be triggered by the acquisition of shares representing 30% or more of the voting rights in the target, irrespective of whether this acquisition of de facto control occurs through a voluntary public offer, a private purchase of a block of shares or multiple purchases in the market.

Cancelled banking merger