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The last year has seen a phenomenal leap in the Indian airline industry, with a number of small, low-cost, no-frills airlines being floated on the stock exchange, leading to a growing demand for passenger aircraft, most of which are imported into India.

By Sandro Castañeda Ricci and Martha Elizabeth Altamirano Ortíz of PricewaterhouseCoopers

The leading legal advisers on global project finance deals The top three firms remain unchanged since last year. Allen & Overy tops the table in terms of total value and volume of deals, with Clifford Chance and Latham & Watkins close behind. Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom has the highest value per deal of the top 10 firms, while Slaughter and May is the big climber, up 31 places in the rankings since 2004.

The European Investment Bank and Nordic Investment Bank completed the €640 million financing for the design, construction and maintenance of the A1 motorway in Poland. White & Case, led by Jacek Czabanski, represented the banks on the financing. Wardynski & Partners advised the Polish Treasury and CMS Cameron McKenna acted for concessionaire Gdansk Transport Company (GTC). GTC will construct and operate the motorway, receiving revenues from availability and performance payments. The project will be implemented in collaboration with the Polish Ministries of Finance and Infrastructure and the national roads authority.

Lead arrangers Credit Suisse, Calyon and Aareal Bank completed a $700 million credit facility to finance Colony Capital's acquisition of Raffles Holdings' hotel operations. Latham & Watkins, led by John Otoshi in Hong Kong and Michèle Penzer in New York, advised the lead arrangers and worked with in-house counsel James Wood at Credit Suisse. Willkie Farr & Gallagher was lead adviser to Colony Capital on the financing.

Many US companies and individuals rushed to file for bankruptcy before a new law came into effect on October 17. Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom was assigned as lead counsel to Delphi Corporation on its Chapter 11 restructuring. Delphi, which was spun off from General Motors in 1999, is the world's largest manufacturer of car parts. Delphi revealed details of $4.5 billion in financing that it plans to use to fund its operations while in Chapter 11. This will include up to $2 billion in debtor-in-possession financing from lenders led by JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup Global Markets. The Skadden Arps team representing Delphi includes partners John Butler and John Lyons in Chicago and Kayalyn Marafioti in New York. The company hopes to emerge from Chapter 11 in 2007.

Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw and Cravath Swaine & Moore were counsel on the $207 million initial public offering (IPO) of TAL International. The company, which sells freight containers, listed its shares on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Philip Brandes of Mayer Brown represented the issuer, William Whelan of Cravath advised the underwriters, which were led by Credit Suisse First Boston.

By Rodrigo Conesa and Ricardo Calderón of Ritch Mueller

The Hague Securities Convention has come under attack for being allegedly US-centric and interfering with EU legislation. These assertions are unfounded, argue Harry C Sigman and Christophe Bernasconi

By Francisco Forastieri Muñoz, Cecilia Quintanilla and John E Rogers of Strasburger & Forastieri SC