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Banks will be forced to restructure conduits

Recommended firms Tier 1 Uría Menéndez Tier 2 Clifford Chance Cuatrecasas Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Garrigues Linklaters The volume and value of Spanish M&A activity have grown over the last 12 months. Four hundred and sixty deals in the first 10 months of 2005 soared to 550 in the same period in 2006. The cumulative value of the deals rose accordingly, from just over $100 billion to $167.4 billion. The growth was fuelled by booming public equity transactions, while private equity deals declined.

Singapore's M&A market has grown in 2006. The total number of M&A deals stands at 344, with a value of $11.8 billion, showing an improvement from last year's $8.2 billion total within 300 deals, according to Dealogic.

Recommended firms Tier 1 Dewey Ballantine Grzesiak Weil Gotshal & Manges Tier 2 Allen & Overy Baker & McKenzie Grszczynski Clifford Chance Janicka Namiotkiewicz Linklaters Soltysinski Kawecki & Szlezak White & Case W Danilowicz W Jurcewicz In Poland overall M&A activity grew between the opening 10 months of 2005 and the same period this year. While the volume of both private and public equity deals grew, only public equity deals enjoyed an increase in cumulative value. The combined worth of private equity transactions actually fell from 2005 to 2006.

To assess the impact of overseas operations of regulated Indian entities in the financial sector, the Reserve Bank of India has extended its regulations covering Indian entities seeking to make investments overseas to entities engaged in any activity, not just financial sector activities.

After visits carried out earlier in the year to evaluate supervision in the financial sector, the International Monetary Fund recently published its Financial Sector Supervision Report for Cyprus. The supervision of commercial banks, cooperative credit institutions, the stock market and insurance companies is carried out by four distinct entities: the Central Bank of Cyprus, the Cooperative Societies' Supervision and Development Authority, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Superintendent of Insurance.

A new Takeover Act came into effect in March 2006 in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBIH), one of the two entities that make up Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH). (The other entity of BIH, the Republic of Srpska, has a similar law, the Law on Takeover of Joint Stock Companies, which came into effect in 2002.)

Recommended firms Tier 1 Bowman Gilfillan Webber Wentzel Bowens Tier 2 Cliffe Dekker Deneys Reitz Edward Nathan Sonnenbergs Werksmans South Africa experienced a healthy growth in M&A this year as international involvement in the market increased following Barclay's acquisition of Absa in 2005, the largest foreign investment ever made in the country.

Recommended firms Tier 1 Bonelli Erede Pappalardo Chiomenti Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton Gianni Origoni Grippo & Partners Tier 2 Clifford Chance Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Public equity activity in Italy has soared over the last 12 months in the face of a slight decline in the volume and value of private equity deals. The growth in the value of public equity means that despite a fall in the total number of M&A deals from 2005 to 2006 their cumulative value has risen from $85.4 billion to $137.8 billion.

Recommended firms Tier 1 Anderson Mori & Tomotsune Linklaters Mori Hamada & Matsumoto Morrison & Foerster Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu Nishimura & Partners Tier 2 Clifford Chance Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Jones Day Skadden Arps Sullivan & Cromwell M&A activity has increased in Japan, though the total value of inbound investment has decreased. Private equity-backed M&A almost doubled in the number of deals, with 127 in January to November this year, compared to 72 in the same period last year.