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While the EU prevaricates about key areas of corporate and capital markets legislation, France has been pushing to reform its domestic rules to free itself of old fashioned restrictions. Thomas Williams reports on the progress made, that still to come and how lawyers are making the most of the new rules

Shearman and Freshfields team up for $505 million private equity deal

Allen & Overy and Linklaters have teamed up with two Finnish law firms to work on a €1billion ($1.75 billion) cross-border brewery merger. Partner Matthew Middleditch is leading a Linklaters team working with local counsel Dittmar & Indrenius to advise Scottish & Newcastle on its conditional takeover offer for Hartwall, Finland's leading beer and soft drinks company. The Scottish & Newcastle brewing group includes the UK's Scottish Courage, France's Brasseries Kronenbourg and Belgium's Alken Maes. Hartwall's portfolio includes Finland's most popular lager, Lapin Kulta.

In the wake of the Enron collapse, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been quick to put forward proposals to improve accounting and financial disclosure, in the hope of preventing any future disasters. Leslie Silverman and Mark Adams of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, New York, and Sebastian Sperber and Robert Williams in Hong Kong review the SEC’s statements and explain how companies should react when preparing financial disclosure press releases and reports filed with the Commission

Pursuant to Article 7, Paragraph 4, of the Federal Investment Fund Act (IFA), the name of a Swiss investment fund must not give rise to deception or confusion. A foreign investment fund will also be granted a distribution licence only if these requirements are observed (Article 45, Paragraph 4, IFA). The appendix to the Guidelines for Applications for the Approval of Fund Regulations issued by the Swiss Federal Banking Commission on December 18 2001, therefore, are also applicable to foreign investment funds.

Enron headquarters,

The political and economic turmoil in Argentina has temporarily derailed one of last year's biggest energy deals in the country.

To facilitate the movement of funds from offshore venture capital (VC) funds into China, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the State Administration of Industry and Commerce jointly promulgated the Provisional Regulations on Establishing Foreign-Invested Venture Capital Investment Enterprises, which came into effect September 1 2001.

The stink from the Enron scandal is so powerful that even the loosest connection to the disgraced energy company can cause trouble.

Entry to the WTO should give foreign banks access to the renminbi business they need if they are to be part of the expected boom in the country’s banking sector. But, as so often in China, things may not be so simple. Mitch Dudek and Kan Liang of Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue’s Shanghai office explain