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News round-up Bech-Bruun Dragsted

Shearman & Sterling adds to European arbitration team

Clifford Chance and Herbert Smith have worked alongside Scottish firm Tods Murray to structure a £1.5 billion ($2.2 billion) collateralized loan obligation (CLO) for Bank of Scotland, the first securitization of corporate loans under Scottish law. The deal, which uses a vehicle called Melrose Financing No 1 registered in England, is a true-sale cash flow CLO backed by Bank of Scotland loans to medium-sized UK corporates. The size of the individual loans securitized distinguishes Melrose from HSBC Bank's pioneering Clover Funding No 1 deal last year, in which a large corporate loan portfolio was securitized. Melrose sold two tranches of notes in dollars, sterling and euros and the structure enables further issuance.

Tender offers have been coming to the attention of the public more and more due to the increase in mergers and acquisitions of publicly-owned companies. The Communiqué Serial IV, No 8 issued by Turkey's Capital Markets Board sets forth the principles relating to tender offers. According to the Communiqué, tender offers fall into two categories: voluntary and mandatory tender offers.

The European Company Statute (ECS) continues its tortuous progress towards implementation. On December 20 2000, political agreement was reached by the EU's Council of Ministers to establish the Statute, and on the related Directive concerning worker involvement in European companies. However, the question remains as to whether the compromise reached, which is still to be endorsed by the European Parliament, will in practice be palatable to countries such as the UK with less of a tradition of worker involvement, than other countries.

Law No. 724 of October 29 1984 introduced the regime of the Tesoreria Unica with respect to regions and other public entities. According to this regime, and prior to the coming into force of the recent amendments, regions, which were included in Table B of Law No. 724, had to deposit the majority of their available funds and revenues with the Central State Treasury.

The law in New Zealand governing security over personal property is soon to undergo significant reform with the implementation of the Personal Property Securities Act 1999 (PPSA). As previously reported (IFLR, December 1999) the PPSA, which was passed by parliament in October 1999, will introduce a regulatory regime for all security interests taken in personal property (which covers property including goods, motor vehicles, livestock and shares and other investment products, but not land and buildings). Holders of security interests in personal property will need to register prescribed details of their interests on the Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR) to perfect those interests. Registration will usually ensure priority for a security over another security that is not registered.

In December 2000, Kazakhstan took another major step to reform its financial sector by adopting a modern insurance law. In a region where the concept of insurance and the need for it are still widely misunderstood, Kazakhstan's Law on Insurance Activity aims to create the type of domestic insurance industry that is necessary for any market economy to function smoothly.

Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton and US rival Brown & Wood have acted on the euro 17.5 billion ($15.7 billion) multi-currency bond offering by France Telecom, the largest corporate bond offering to date. Clearys, led by John Brinitzer, advised lead managers BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse First Boston, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and Schroder Salomon Smith Barney. Brown & Wood advised France Telecom. Representing France Telecom out of Brown & Wood's New York office were partners Jack Kantrowitz and Nicholas Brown. Partner John Russell was advising from the firm's London office.

In March IFLR held ceremonies in London and Hong Kong to celebrate the achievements of the international legal market’s top firms. In this issue we present the winners and runners up in this year’s awards, with analysis of what it took to win the deal and team awards. Leading the pack were Sullivan & Cromwell who won IFLR Team of the Year, and Linklaters & Alliance who won International Law Firm of the Year for Asia