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The Latvian Credit Institution Law of 1995 has been amended. It now outlines more specific disclosure regulations for Latvian banks concerning information on clients and those clients' transactions.

The legal basis for regulating competition in Albania is outlined mainly in Law 9121 of July 28 2003 (the Competition Law), which aims to protect free and effective competition. The law governs prohibited agreements, abuses of a dominant position and mergers. Separately, state aids will be regulated by Law 9374 of 21 April 2005, which takes effect on January 1 2006.

By Sandro Castañeda Ricci and Martha Elizabeth Altamirano Ortíz of PricewaterhouseCoopers

O'Melveny & Myers expanded its Tokyo office with the hire of three partners from Taiyo Law Office. Naosuke Fujita and Yoji Maeda focus on cross-border M&A and capital markets transactions, while Yukihiro Terazawa is an intellectual property specialist. The firm also hired Kosei Watanabe and his associates from Watanabe Kokusai Law Offices, its former joint enterprise partner.

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.

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.

A syndicate of banks, led by WestLB and BNP Paribas, completed the securitization of €1 billion of German auto-loan receivables. Volkswagen Bank originated the loans through the German securitization vehicle Driver Two. It is the second German true-sale securitization to make use of the TSI platform, established by 13 banks and True Sale International. Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw, led by finance partners Ralf Hesdahl, Stuart Litwin and Ingo Kleutgens, advised the syndicate of banks.

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.

NRG Energy reached an agreement to buy Texas Genco for about $5.8 billion in stock and cash. Under the deal, which brings together two US power firms with a combined 26,000 MW in generating capacity, NRG will also assume $2.5 billion of Texas Genco's debt. Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom advised NRG Energy on the acquisition. The firm's team comprised lawyers in New York, Houston, Wilmington and Washington DC, including partners Erica Ward, John Ale, Clifford Naeve, Robert Pincus and Stacy Kanter. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett advised Texas Genco, with David Sorkin leading the firm's team.

By Boris Otto Lira and Alejandro Landa Thierry of Thacher Proffitt & Wood