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Ben Maiden reports on how lawsuits have failed to derail the Argentina debt exchange

IFLR held its biggest-ever awards ceremonies in March, with events in Hong Kong and London to reward the top firms for innovation in corporate finance in 2004

Ian Sideris and Simon Puleston Jones ask whether credit default swaps in synthetic CDOs are becoming more commoditized and analyze the technical issues in swap documentation

Daniel Whitehead explains what debt capital markets participants can learn from recent English law litigation over the responsibilities of trustees

Andrew Carmichael (Linklaters), Leonard Birmingham (Harneys),

Stephen Roith (Clifford Chance), Agnes Nardi (3HK) Clifford Chance's performance in Asia last year was impressive. Many clients, competitors and other market players that IFLR spoke to praised the quality and efficiency of the firm's work in particular. Some of the firm's most innovative deals came in greater China, as the lawyers created landmarks in the PRC in distressed assets (Silver Grant and Great Wall No 1) and M&A (Lenovo-IBM's personal computing division), structured a series of securitization and debt capital markets firsts in Hong Kong (the SAR government's debut global bond offering and Hong Kong Link), and set a debt financing benchmark in Macau (Wynn Resorts). The firm's equity lawyers were also busy, acting on the IPOs of Thai Oil, AirAsia and Yellow Pages in south-east Asia. Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia were also jurisdictions in which the firm added to its capital markets, restructuring, and project and structured finance achievements.

Argentina might have set important precedents for sovereign debt deals, but big questions remain unanswered. Anna Gelpern explains

To encourage mergers and acquisitions and thereby the restructuring of companies in Turkey, certain tax advantages to merging companies have been regulated under the relevant tax regulations. The banking crisis in 2001 has prompted the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BRSA) to encourage restructuring of the banking system and strengthen the financial structure of banks by setting out certain benefits in its regulations for merging banks under the Regulation on the Merger and Acquisition of Banks (the Regulation).

The requirement to apply international financial reporting standards (IFRS) for any accounting period commencing on or after January 1 2005 has raised questions relating to whether the use of IFRS could result in accounting profits (and as a result taxable profits) appearing in the accounts of Irish structured finance special purpose vehicles (otherwise known as Section 110 Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 companies) where previously no such profits would have arisen.

The Securities and Exchange Law of Korea requires any investor (together with any special related persons) who acquires 5% or more of total outstanding shares in a listed company (or who changes their share ownership by 1% or more thereafter) to file a report to the Financial Supervisory Commission of Korea and the Korea Exchange within five days of the relevant transaction. This filing requirement is referred to as the 5% rule, which helps to promote transparency in the market and prevent hostile takeovers. Any investor failing to comply with the 5% rule can be restricted from exercising their voting rights and ordered to sell the acquired shares.