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The Securities and Futures Bill, gazetted in November 2000, seeks to consolidate and reform 10 ordinances now regulating the Hong Kong securities and futures market. The proposed legislation seeks to increase the transparency of securities dealings, tighten restrictions against market manipulation, and improve the operations of market participants, therefore bringing Hong Kong securities legislation in line with those of key international financial centres. Not surprisingly, disclosure of interests in shares of Hong Kong listed companies is one main area of change. Major amendments proposed include the following:

Thomas Abbondante Allen & Overy's debt practice made waves again last month when the firm helped secure the largest ever high-yield bond issue by a European company outside the telecommunications sector. US partners Thomas Abbondante and Adam Kupitz led the firm's high-yield team advising Goldman Sachs International, Royal Bank of Scotland and Hypovereinsbank on the euro 550 million ($471 million) 10.4% bond issued by Messer Griesheim Holding, the holding company of the German industrial gases group Messer Griesheim.

BBLP Beiten Burkhardt Mittl & Wegener was hit in early May by the defection of its entire Frankfurt mergers and acquisitions (M&A) team and all but one of its five partners in the city to Weil, Gotshal & Manges. Led by the managing partner of the firm's Frankfurt office, Gerhard Schmidt, partners Heiner Drüke, Stephan Grauke and Uwe Hartmann are to move to the local office of the US firm leaving just one partner, the public notary Thilo Krause-Palfner, to hold the fort for BBLP in the city.

Mexico's congress amended a securities bill increasing in May, minority rights for shareholders and increasing disclosure levels, which it hopes will spur the growth of the country's capital markets.

Jonathan Inman, head of project finance at Linklaters in Tokyo, is leaving the firm's Japanese office in June. He will resume his work in the London office at the end of August, advising energy clients such as Enron, following the end of his secondment.

UK firm Lovells has boosted its corporate and finance practices in London, Frankfurt and Paris by poaching five partners from the European offices of rival US and UK firms.

UK lawyers have reacted angrily to the German government's attempt to frustrate the agreement of a European takeover code. The 12-year long negotiations to establish a pan-European code were thrown into disarray at the end of May when German government officials bowed to domestic pressure and withdrew their support for the draft European directive. European member states now have until the end of this month, when the conciliation period over the takeover code ends, to agree a compromise or the draft directive will collapse and with it any hope of agreeing a European code.

Insiders face many legal obstacles to trading their company’s stock, but Rule 10b5-1(c) can provide a solution in the form of advance trading plans. Steven Bochner and Leslie Hakala of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati reveal how this often overlooked regulation can help

In the second of a two-part series, Ellen Hayes and Amy Cummings of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Washington DC, look at how recent developments in the use of multilateral agencies and political risk insurance can help investors gain confidence in project finance

The Turkish parliament passed a new law amending the law of the Turkish Central Bank on April 25. This Law is designed to free the Turkish Central Bank from political influence and authorizes it to streamline monetary policy as a completely autonomous body.