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Europe’s overhaul of the way securities are traded must balance market efficiency with competition for trading between banks and stock exchanges. Peter Gomber and Jochen Seitz look at how new rules will do that

Stringent public offer rules make public-to-private deals in France more challenging than in other EU jurisdictions. But changes to takeover rules could make structuring deals easier. Olivier Assant and Benjamin Kanovitch explain

Bondholder demands for better protection have crystallized after recent deals showing the value of covenants and the potential losses on covenant-free bonds. By Matthew Hartley and Cuthbert Kendall

The Market Abuse Directive is being implemented in Greece by Law 3340/2005 on the protection of the capital market from abuse of privileged information and market manipulation. For the purposes of the Law, market abuse means abuse of privileged information and market manipulation. The Law applies to actions or omissions that take place:

The Cayman Islands will be implementing measures equivalent to the EUSD (the EU Savings Directive) by way of bilateral agreements with each of the EU member states. Legislation implementing the provisions contained in the model agreement will be put into place for July 1 2005, which is the Directive's implementation date. The Cayman legislation requires a report to be made on interest payments if certain tests are met.

As part of the changes to the capital markets in the EU, the rules that apply to public securities offerings on the EU regulated markets are about to change. From July 1 2005, Directive 2003/71/EC on the prospectus to be published when securities are offered to the public or admitted to trading (and amending Directive 2001/34/EC) will enter into force.

The first quarter of 2005 saw two public tender offers with substantial transaction volumes in Austria: Siemens' offer for VA Tech had a total transaction volume of €955 million and Österreichische Volksbanken-AG (ÖVAG)'s offer for Investkredit Bank AG had a total transaction volume of €750 million. In Siemens/VA Tech, a new offer condition was introduced during the offer term against a simultaneous waiver of other conditions and in ÖVAG/ Investkredit a voluntary starting offer was converted into a mandatory offer.

Over 180 capital markets professionals gathered in London last month for the second annual IFLR Capital Markets Forum. Those attending the two-day event included senior in-house lawyers from the leading international investment banks, issuers' counsel and the leading private practitioners in the fields of debt and equity securities.

Cablecom's recent refinancing extended light covenant packages to bank debt, a first for the European market. By Michael Evans

Kyung Taek Jung, Joon Park, Weon Jung Kim and Yon Kyun Oh of Kim & Chang round up legislative changes over the past year that affect investors in Korea