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China has shown its willingness to open markets to competition. But the country's insolvency laws need updating if lawmakers want foreign investment to last. By Campbell Korff and Xinhong Liu of Clifford Chance, Hong Kong

In a month that saw the UK's FTSE 100 index fall to its lowest levels since 1997, Great Universal Stores' public sale of a 22.5% stake in clothing company Burberry was a welcome distraction for capital markets teams at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Linklaters.

Germany's national railway operator, Deutsche Bahn, concluded a whirlwind month of negotiations at the beginning of July to acquire 65% of Stinnes, the logistics and freight company, from E.ON, the energy group, for €2.5 billion ($2.5 billion). The transaction is one of the largest acquisitions to close since the German Takeover Act was introduced in January this year and its legal structure points a way forward for future acquisitions under the new laws.

German lawyers have given a lukewarm response to a code of practice for companies listing on the Frankfurt stock market. The Going Public Principles developed by Deutsche Börse and the banking and legal members of its Primary Markets Advisory Committee are designed to strengthen the role of the prospectus as the central information medium for deals and are the result of several months of market consultation.

A Bill that introduces new standards for the corporate governance of companies with shares listed on the Athens Stock Exchange was recently approved by the Greek parliament and following Government Gazette registration the new law has now come into force (as law No 3016/2002). These new corporate governance rules are a follow-up to a Code of Conduct for listed companies issued by a decision of the Capital Market Commission in late 2000.

Lawyers at Allen & Overy were tight-lipped after the launch of the first sovereign Eurobond by the Republic of Iran since the country's Islamic revolution in 1979. Together with Iranian firm Attieh, the UK firm's international debt and equity specialist Roger Wedderburn-Day advised book runners Commerzbank Securities and BNP Paribas on the €500 million ($506 million) deal launched on July 10. The Central Bank of Iran is not using outside counsel.

Saudi Arabia's Supreme Economic Council (SEC), chaired by Crown Prince Abdullah, recently approved a privatization strategy outlining those sectors of the economy to be partially or wholly privatized. The targeted sectors include telecommunications, power generation, desalination, railways, hospitals, and the postal service.

The Mexican Securities Law (Ley del Mercado de Valores) allows government entities to issue debt-denominated securities known as Certificados Bursátiles. Although the Mexican federal government has in the past issued debt securities, this mechanism has certainly not been a financing option for state governments or for municipalities. So far there has only been two issuances of Certificados Bursátiles of this kind registered with the Mexican Stock Exchange. One was made by the state government of Morelos for about $21 million, and the second by the city of Aguascalientes for about $9 million. Recently, Fitch Ratings has given the city of San Pedro Garza García an AAA rating for the issuance of Certificados Bursátiles up to $20 million. It is expected that these securities will be priced and placed this summer and, if successful, will become the third issuance of these kind of debt instruments in the Mexican securities market.

The Colombian Superintendency of Securities has recently defined new illegal, non-authorized and insecure practices in relation to publicly-traded companies, with the purpose of protecting the rights of minority shareholders, and of guaranteeing transparent decisions at general shareholders meetings (Resolution 0116, February 27 2002).

Recent amendments to the Audit Special Exceptions Law, a law relating to the Commercial Code, provide an alternative to Japan's existing corporate governance structure. The new governance structure, scheduled to take effect in April 2003, is not mandatory and only applies to companies categorized as "larger companies" which satisfy certain criteria.