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After the completion of the negotiations for the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta), the Mexican authorities started to negotiate international treaties around the world to avoid double taxation, as well as treaties for the exchange of tax information. Under the constitutional principles, these treaties when ratified and approved by the Mexican senate will become the highest laws of the land, together with the Mexican Constitution.

Linklaters has advised a consortium of private equity houses on Europe's most expensive leveraged buyout. The €4.9 billion ($4.78 billion) acquisition of Legrand is the biggest private equity buyout for a decade, will be the largest mezzanine financing in Europe and the biggest high-yield financing in France.

John D Moore of Goldman Sachs looks at what the new law means for companies

Share repurchasing has been employed as an instrument of financial policy by German stock corporations since a reform of the German Stock Corporation Act in 1998. It essentially requires the shareholders' meeting to authorize the management board to repurchase shares up to a total volume of 10% of the share capital for a period of 18 months. Furthermore, the shareholders' meeting fixes the highest and lowest price for the shares to be acquired but it is at liberty not to specify the purpose of the share repurchase. The share repurchase can serve various objectives: procurement of shares as acquisition currency, distribution of excess liquidity with unchanged dividend level, increase of income per individual share and, not least, giving positive signals to the capital markets.

A new EU regulation has been introduced with the stated objectives of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of insolvency proceedings with a cross-border element and avoiding the incentive for parties to transfer assets or proceedings within the EU in an attempt to forum-shop. The new regulation, Council Regulation (EC) No 1346/2000 on Insolvency Proceedings Within the EU (except Denmark), came into force on May 31 2002.

Singapore's financial market regulator is to increase disclosure levels for retail hedge funds, calling for clearer prospectuses explaining their risks and objectives. The Monetary Authority of Singapore is consulting on the regulations, which will make companies offering hedge funds to retail investors disclose in clear language the differences between hedge funds and traditional funds, the risks and the objectives of the investment.

Foreign investors have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to invest in Thailand. Craig Alan Wilson of White & Case explains how to take it

Companies going public in Germany need to watch what they say in their offering documents. By Herbert Harrer and Ulli Janssen of Linklaters Oppenhoff & Rädler

The City Council of Bogotá has issued Act 65 of 2002 (Acuerdo 65 de 2002) by means of which it has passed an industry and commerce tax reform. The Act includes reforms related to taxpayers, taxable base, tax withholdings, and an increase in the applicable rates that had been proposed by the city mayor since last year. The most relevant aspects of the reform are outlined below.

In Canada, mergers and acquisitions tend to be negotiated and friendly. One of the reasons for this is that many Canadian public and private corporations have one or more major shareholders whose support is essential for an acquisition to succeed.