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O'Melveny & Myers is recruiting three lawyers to bolster the US firm's presence in Hong Kong this autumn.

Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy has structured Latin America's largest telecoms financing so far this year, using templates of documents drafted by the firm for the financing for Brazil's BCP last year.

Clifford Chance and Freshfields act on latest E.ON deal

French boutique firm Bredin Prat has poached a senior partner from the breakaway Paris arm of Dutch firm Stibbe. Stibbe Paris is in merger talks with US firm Latham & Watkins. Competition specialist Hughes Calvet is to join the French mergers and acquisitions boutique in September, ending a seven-year tenancy at Stibbe. Calvet says his decision was not connected to Stibbe's talks with Latham & Watkins and that Bredin Prat was simply better suited to his area of practice. "Joining a firm like Bredin Prat would be a positive prospect for any lawyer in Paris," he says. "I think there is room for a boutique firm that focuses on top end work."

On July 4 2001, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) took another significant step in reforming China's banking sector by issuing the Tentative Provisions on Commercial Banks' Other Businesses. The Provisions broaden the activities of Chinese banks to cover businesses that are investment in nature, a landmark development in the Chinese banking industry. With China's WTO entry imminent, Chinese commercial banks will face fierce competition from their foreign counterparts operating in China and the Provisions will help to create a level playing field.

French company law has for a long time been the source of some confusion over the differing roles of management groups. The New Economic Regulations Law has now been passed with the intention of clearing up the mess and giving greater rights to works councils. Olivier de Précigout of Lovells, Paris, and Arnaud Latscha of Siméon & Associés look at the reforms

The latest legislative change prompting discussion is the Financial Services Reform Bill 2001 (FSRB) which is at present before the Federal Parliament. Now that the new federal Corporations Act 2001 has come into force, as of July 15 2001, the way has been paved for the FSRB to commence on October 1 2001.

On July 16 2001 the Argentine Commercial Court No. 15 ruled on the opening of preventive proceedings (concurso preventivo) to restructure over $900 million in debt of the flag-carrier Aerolíneas Argentinas and the appointment of receivers following a voluntary petition filed by the company to avoid a declaration of bankruptcy. Aerolíneas Argentinas is owned by the Spanish state holding company SEPI, which has been negotiating with the Argentine government over the airline's future.

The Privy Council (with judgment delivered by Lord Millett) has overruled the Court of Appeal decision of In re New Bullas Trading Limited [1994] I BCLC 449 by stating that it is not possible to obtain a fixed charge on uncollected book debts by treating the uncollected debts and their proceeds as two separate assets and creating a fixed charge over the uncollected debts with a floating charge over the proceeds.

The Federal Act on Investment Funds (IFA) is to be revised in view of certain changes to pertinent EU directives. At present, the investment companies quoted on the Swiss stock exchange and incorporated as joint stock companies (Aktiengesellschaften) pursuant to Article 620 et seq Swiss Code of Obligations do not fall under the scope of the IFA. The Federal Banking Commission (FBC) intends that this revision should be taken as an opportunity to enlarge the scope of the IFA. The IFA governs assets which are managed under a collective investment contract and excludes assets that are managed in a different form, particular in corporate form (Article 3 para 1 and 2, IFA). The FBC takes the position that this provision contradicts the principle of "same business, same rules". Furthermore, the existing legislation contains an unequal treatment of Swiss closed-end investment funds on the one hand and foreign funds on the other hand. Pursuant to Article 3 para 3, foreign investment funds whose units are distributed in Switzerland are governed by the IFA regardless of their legal structure.