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A new way to issue under Rule 144A

One of the hottest products in the financial markets in the past few years, the exchange-traded fund (ETF), has now collided with a second hot product, exchange-traded notes (ETNs). In late October, the battle over the federal income-tax treatment of ETNs heated up.

Two senior in-house counsel sit back in their leather meeting-room chairs, considering what the biggest trends will be next year. With our annual predictions for the year ahead due in January, I'm curious to hear what their outlook is. It turns out to be almost as gloomy as the grey, wet weather out of the top-floor window. One reason is pessimism over Islamic finance.

Allen & Gledhill and WongPartnership continue to dominate the Singaporean market, grabbing the lion's share of important deals and exploring avenues of growth to sustain their positions at the top. Allen & Gledhill has recruited talented capital markets veteran Lim Teong Sit from Malaysian firm Shearn Delamore & Co, while WongPartnership has begun to seize valuable assignments in the Middle East after establishing an office in Qatar this year. Smaller players such as TSMP Law Corporation have broadened the depth of their practices too. The recent joint venture, for example, between TSMP and accomplished Australian firm Allens Arthur Robinson could be promising for the Singaporean firm. The venture not only offers the potential for increased appointments, the added ability to offer both local and foreign legal advice may enable TSMP to climb the ranks in the next few years.

Recent years have seen a big increase in the commoditization of structured finance in Spain. After several years of consistent growth, the banks are finally treating Spain as just another western jurisdiction, with the same expectations of quick turnaround, high volume and low fees from their external counsel. More deals are also being executed by the banks in-house, given their now extensive knowledge of how these deals work in the Spanish market. This, obviously, means even less work for external counsel, but several firms have made the smart move of volunteering templates and other standard documentation to the banks' internal teams. This may not be hourly charging, but by getting the banks to pay for this service it does compensate for some of the lost revenue otherwise felt by commoditization.

The Polish capital markets are at their healthiest ever. And the top-tier firms couldn't be happier. "The market is spectacular for us; this is what we were waiting for," said one partner.

Mexico Recommended firms Tier 1 Creel García-Cuéllar y Müggenburg Galicia y Robles Mijares Angoitia Cortés y Fuentes Ritch Mueller White & Case Tier 2 Jáuregui Navarrete y Nadar Kuri Breña Sánchez Ugarte Corcuera y Aznar Martínez Algaba Estrella de Haro y Galván-Duque Santamarina y Steta Tier 3 Baker & McKenzie Bello Gallardo Morales y Tsuru Berdeja Abogados González Calvillo Holland & Knight – Gallastegui y Lozano Romo Paillés Guzmán After a fiercely contested election in 2006, Felipe Calderón took office as president of Mexico in January 2007. The slim victory margin ensures few radical changes, suggesting stability for the country's financial markets. Calderón also offers a sense of continuity with the previous administration, and what some market experts say is a "more professional, more sophisticated government" – pleasing for investors to hear.

"We haven't seen so many offerings at any time in the past 20 years, perhaps even ever." So says one local partner about the state of Portugal's equity capital markets. And to keep the equity lawyers especially busy, many of them have been called in to advise on the share acquisition aspects of the country's recent surge in M&A. In particular, the takeover offer launched by Sonaecom for Portugal Telecom Multimedia seems to have required the services of almost every equity partner in Lisbon.

Italy Recommended firms Tier 1 Bonelli Erede Pappalardo Chiomenti Clifford Chance Tier 2 Allen & Overy Gianni Origoni Grippo & Partners Tier 3 Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton d'Urso Munari Gatti Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Labruna Mazziotti Segni Latham & Watkins NCTM Shearman & Sterling Simmons & Simmons Debt is back in Italy and making its presence felt. Companies that have traditionally looked to banks for revolving lines of credit are now choosing to issue large medium-term notes instead. The quest for easy capital to leverage acquisitions is driving debt capital markets as the M&A boom rolls on.

Equity slowly picks up Equity capital markets activity in the French market, which was practically dead between 2001 and 2004, has been picking up, although the beginning of 2007 was a little slow with fewer initial public offerings (IPOs) than the previous year. There has been a decrease in the number of privatizations using the capital markets – the last one was EDF – although the country's new president Nicolas Sarkozy has announced that he will be signing off state assets. And the buoyant M&A market has meant that equity offerings are quite often made to finance acquisitions.