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Germany's financial regulator has proposed guidelines explaining how public companies should interpret the increased disclosure and market abuse obligations created by German implementation of the EU's Market Abuse Directive in November 2004.

Allen & Overy has finished top of Dealogic's global project finance review for the third time in four years. The firm closed 51 deals worth over $15 billion in 2004, taking a 9.3% share of the market.

One of Boston's most prominent venture capital law firms, Testa Hurwitz & Thibeault, will shut down following a vote by its partnership in mid-January. The firm pointed to the departure of 10 partners in early December and its subsequent failure to secure a merger, despite holding talks with various firms, as the reasons behind the decision to dissolve the remaining partnership. "A law firm such as ours, although prominent, profitable and filled with talented lawyers is - like any professional services organization - knit of a fabric that, if stretched too thin, can unravel," said managing partner George Davitt. A player in the Boston legal market for 30 years, Testa Hurwitz has been well known for its work in venture capital and private equity, including a fund formation practice.

The Bank of Thailand (BoT) is publishing a reference rate for short-term interest rates, called the Bangkok Interbank Offered Rate (Bibor). Bibor is the rate of interest at which banks can borrow funds from other banks in the Bangkok interbank market.

Companies outside the US are taking action to avoid rules that would compel many of them to register with the SEC. Dan Andrews reports

Saudi Arabia has set up a new regulatory regime for registering interests in real property and related transactions. The Law for Registration of Real Property (the Law) was published on May 18 2002 and became effective one year later. Currently, interests in real property and related transactions (for example, transfers of ownership, mortgages, the creation of Waqfs (similar to the Western concept of trusts) with respect to real property and bequeathing real property through wills) are registered with notaries in special registers maintained for this purpose. Under the Law, new real property registers (the Registers) will be set up jointly by the Ministry of Municipalities and Rural Affairs and the Ministry of Justice. The Registers will be maintained and administrated the Department of Real Property Registration, a department of the Ministry of Justice. The Law requires all real property interests and transactions to be recorded in the Register, failing which no real property interest or transaction will have legal effect as to third parties. The Law further provides that lease agreements with terms exceeding five years will not be effective as to third parties for the period exceeding the first five years of the lease term unless they are recorded in the Registers.

For years lawyers in The Netherlands have pondered whether a creditor has the option of seizing the unused portion of a line of credit that the creditor's debtor maintains with its bank. It all started in 2001 with the decision of the German Supreme Court (Bundesgerichtshof) dated March 29 2003 answering the question in the affirmative. Almost instantly it was said that the outcome of a Netherlands seizure on the unused portion of a line of credit with a Netherlands bank could be identical or similar to the German conclusion. So all eyes were on the Supreme Court of The Netherlands (Hoge Raad der Nederlanden) as the most senior court to settle the matter, which it duly did in a ruling handed down on October 29 2004.

On January 12 2005, the government repealed the contentious Press Note 18 (PN 18) dealing with foreign financial or technical collaboration under the automatic approval route.

The BVI Business Companies Act (the Act) came into force on January 1 2005. Unlike the International Business Companies Act (the IBC Act), this single statute allows for the incorporation of international offshore companies as well as locally owned companies doing business in the BVI. For a two-year transition period, both the IBC Act and the new Act will be in force. After the two years, the new Act will be the sole corporate statue for the BVI and will regulate all BVI companies.

Boxclever: maintenance problems killed the deal German state-owned bank WestLB has finally rid itself of UK TV rental company Boxclever, almost two years after its securitization deal fell apart.