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Spain's new Law 44/2002 on Reform Measures of the Financial System - in which many surprises can be found - has finally been issued. It was published on November 23 in the Spanish Official Gazette (BOE no 281). Except for matters specified in Final Disposition number 3 (Disposición Final 3ª), the bulk of the Law is enforceable from the day after publication.

Since 1996, any entity buying shares in a formerly state-owned enterprise as a result of privatization was excluded from the mandatory buyout obligation (the so-called privatization exemption), set out in the Czech Commercial Code. The mandatory buyout provision of the Code said that anyone buying shares above a specified threshold (including a controlling interest) must offer to buy the shares of minority shareholders.

The SEC has issued the first enforcement actions under its disclosure rules. The cases point to some of the difficulties in applying Regulation Fair Disclosure but should help issuers understand the types of activities it forbids. Leslie Silverman and SK Kang of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, New York, and Sebastian Sperber and James Small in Hong Kong explain

The Securities and Exchange Law of Japan does not generally require any company to report quarterly business results and financial condition. Although certain listed companies voluntarily disclose financial results on a quarterly basis, only companies with their securities listed on certain markets for emerging companies, such as Mothers on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE), are required to file quarterly disclosure statements under the regulations of the relevant stock exchanges.

Allen & Overy has advised lead manager and arranger Morgan Stanley on the securitization of forest land by Finnish forest products company Stora Enso.

Clifford Chance has advised on a €6.6 billion ($6.78 billion) real estate securitization for the Italian government.

Ashurst Morris Crisp has advisedthe arranger of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club's securitization, the biggest and most complex UK football financing to date.

On November 29 2002 the Mexican government published new regulations applicable to institutional investment funds (afores) (Consar 15-8). These regulations are a result of new government policies towards promoting the growth of the institutional investment industry.

In connection with the bankruptcy of a regional savings and loan association at the beginning of the 1990s, a whole string of problems under the Swiss law governing the liquidation and capital reconstruction of banks came to light. The Swiss Federal Council has now proposed to parliament a revision of the law that would create a capital reconstruction and liquidation proceeding tailored to individual cases and would also coordinate the areas of capital reconstruction and liquidation with bank supervision. The new law would place all three areas under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Swiss Federal Bank Commission (SFBC).

In recent years and under prevailing conditions on the Swedish stock market, many companies have initiated discussions on adjusting the terms and conditions of various types of option programmes to restore an effective incentive for the participating employees. These discussions involve adjusted strike or subscription prices, extended exercise or subscription periods or other, less comprehensive, adjustments of a purely technical or editorial nature. This will, of course, give rise to a number of considerations.