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Non-US issuers of mortgage- and asset-backed securities stand to benefit from two recent Australian offerings. Teams at Clayton Utz and Allens Arthur Robinson in Sydney have closed the first globally offered securitizations issued off an SEC shelf registration, paving the way for other foreign issuers. Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw in New York also played a crucial role at the SEC, winning approval for Commonwealth Bank of Australia's 2002-1G Medallion Trust, which became the first structured finance transaction conducted by a non-US issuer using an SEC Form S-3 registered shelf prospectus.

Bharti Tele-Ventures has succesfully completed its IPO, making it the first Indian mobile phone company to list publicly. Jones Day and Pathak & Associates, its Indian affiliate, advised the issuer. Shearman & Sterling and Little & Co advised the Indian affiliates of JPMorgan and Merrill Lynch, the book-running lead managers. The deal was postponed on several occasions thanks to market conditions in the US. The company originally announced its intention to list both in India and in the US, but scaled back its plans. Now, two years after starting work, Bharti has seized a window of opporunity and listed on the Delhi, Mumbai and National stock exchanges, making it one of India's top-10 listed companies in terms of market capitalization. The company has ruled out an issue of American depository receipts for the time being.

To lose one managing partner may be regarded as a misfortune. But Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer's loss of two might seem to some like carelessness. To others, with a more sensible frame of mind, it may appear as a coincidence. In response to media reports in the UK Freshfields is keen to dismiss talk of a management shake-up within its Asian network after the announcement that the managing partners of two of its biggest offices will soon be stepping down. Charles Stevens, the present managing partner of the Tokyo office, plans to retire in the autumn after five years with Freshfields and, in a separate move, Roger Dyer will be replaced in Singapore by David Simpson.

The UK treasury has stated that proposals to change rules that allow investors to defer tax payments on hedge funds earnings are at a very early stage after criticism of a recent consultation paper. The report on offshore funds states that British residents should pay tax on overseas investments as they would with UK-based investments. The report goes on to suggest that investors should pay tax on an annual basis rather than when they close out their position.

Finance lawyers are calling on the European Commission to drop proposals for a new takeover directive, which they say could damage Europe's capital markets. In an article in this month's IFLR, the chairman of the company law committee of the City of London Law Society, James Palmer, calls on The High Level Group of Company Law Experts which is making the recommendations in a report to the commission, to think again.

Recent developments in the supervision of collective investment institutions By Peter R Leenders and Maarten E J Verrest of Steins Bisschop Meijburg & Co, Amsterdam

Bart P M Joosen (partner) is admitted to the Amsterdam Bar and has previously worked with Tilburg University as assistant professor corporate law, Philips Electronics as in-house counsel corporate legal department and in the Banking & Securities Law Groups of Wouters Advocaten, an associated law firm of Arthur Andersen and of Coopers and Lybrand, Legal Services. Bart Joosen has specific experience and expertise in regulatory matters for participants in the financial industry, particularly banks and insurance companies with a focus on funding of financial industry institutions capital adequacy and solvency ratio and risk management issues from a legal perspective. Furthermore Bart Joosen has built up experience and expertise in structured finance, securitisation and securities law matters. Bart Joosen frequently publishes on matters of banking and securities law and on international insolvency law. He joined Steins Bisschop Meijburg Advocaten en Notarissen & Co in 1998.

By Urs Brügger and Thomas Reutter of Bär & Karrer, Zurich

Netherlands law investment fund structures By Tom de Waard and Maurits Tausk of Clifford Chance, Amsterdam

by René Bösch and Mark-Oliver Baumgarten, Homburger, Zurich