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Allen & Overy is advising on the construction of a $4 billion petrochemical plant in Guangdong Province, southern China. The firm is acting on the deal as counsel to Shell and a joint venture between Shell, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) and two Chinese companies

Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe has acted on a mortgage-backed securitization that has enabled an Australian originator to access US money markets for the first time.

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.

Name change

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.

There may be no such thing as a 100% risk-free project financing, particularly in emerging markets, but excess risk is still a deterrent to investors. In the first of a two-part series, Ellen Hayes and Amy Cummings of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Washington, DC, look at what steps being taken to mitigate the problems of corruption, legislation reform and arbitration procedures

Most of New Zealand's insider trading laws have been in force for over 10 years, although during that time no one has ever been found guilty of insider trading. In March 2001 the government announced changes to improve New Zealand's insider trading regime. This followed the release of a discussion document on the subject in September 2000, and the resulting submissions, on which the government has decided to act.

News round-up In a move described by Mannheimer Swartling as a "friendly separation", five senior lawyers at the legal arm of Enskilda Securities, Enskilda Law took partnerships with the Stockholm-based firm.