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Payment-in-kind notes have been popular in the US for some time. Now bankers in Europe are keen to add these instruments to their deals. Clifford Atkins and Philippa Dodd of Shearman & Sterling show how

A key characteristic of supplementary capital contributions (prestações suplementares), which Portuguese law (articles 201º to 213º of the Company Code) forsees being used exclusively for Lda companies, but which subject to certain requirements may also be materially adopted in SA companies, is to enable shareholders to make supplementary capital contributions. This is provided the terms under which such contributions are made are stipulated in the company's by-laws and that supplementary equity capital is non-interest bearing. To demand from the shareholders all or part of the amount (necessarily foreseen in the by-laws) of the supplementary capital contributions, a resolution from the General Meeting is always required.

In May of this year HMV enlivened the otherwise moribund UK equity market with its flotation. Before the company’s admission a rationalization of its complex multi-tiered capital structure was required. By James Cole of Shearman & Sterling

Politicians are pointing to deregulation of the trading in energy derivatives as the failure behind the California energy crisis. Not true, says Philip McBride Johnson of Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom

By handing down three decisions on voting-right limitations for privatized companies, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has made a sophisticated judgment of special voting rights in the proceedings brought by the EU Commission.

Since the implementation of Council Directive 92/50/EEC of June 18 1992 relating to the coordination of procedures for the award of public service contracts (the Directive), the public procurement rules also apply to financial services with the exception of central bank and financial services that relate to the issuance, sale, purchase or transfer of securities and other financial instruments.

Austria has always had closer ties with eastern Europe than many of its fellow EU members. But these links are forcing Austria’s law firms to make a difficult choice between east and west. Michael Evans reports

Last year’s legal reforms promised great things for the German market. Thomas Williams reports from Frankfurt where lawyers are now desperate for a long-expected recovery

Linklaters and Clifford Chance act on first UK hospital refinancing

Uría & Menéndez and former Andersen Legal firm J&A Garrigues are advising on Spain's first initial public offering (IPO) in more than a year, the ¤1.8 billion ($1.76 billion) flotation of Enagas. The deal is the first Spanish IPO since airline Iberia was floated in March 2001. Garrigues is advising Enagas and its parent company Gas Natural, while Uría is advising joint coordinators Goldman Sachs and Banco Santander Central Hispano (BSCH).