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Pursuant to the Royal Decree of December 5 2000, the Belgian Law on Commercial Practices and the Protection of Consumers (LCP) of July 14 1991 became, as from May 1 2001, applicable to almost all financial instruments and securities. The general purpose of the Royal Decree was:

On March 8 2001, the Bank of Thailand, by virtue of section 9 bis of the Commercial Banking Act BE 2505 (1962), issued Letter No Tor Por Tor Sor Nor Sor (11) Wor 514/2544 on Permission for Commercial Banks to Undertake Escrow Accounts Business. This permits a commercial bank to render escrow account services to clients who have entered into either a buy and sell agreement, or sale agreement of various properties with the seller; the commercial bank will allow the withdrawal of money from the said account only if the purchaser and seller have fulfilled the terms and conditions as set out in the escrow account agreement.

From 1994, the year in which cellular phone concessions were awarded, the number of users of this type of service increased from 69,795 to 1,921,065 in 1999, which means an increase of 87.2% per annum on the number of subscribed users. This figures vastly exceeds the initial projections of all involved, both companies and the government (initial calculations were of around 250,000 subscribed users in the first five years). As a result of this situation, and in order to increase the competition within the Colombian wireless telecommunications market, on February 2 2000, the Colombian Congress enacted Law 555, which sets forth the general framework for the provision of Personal Communication Services (PCS) in Colombia.

On April 5 2001 the Argentine government published Decree No 396/01, effective April 8 2001, introducing important changes to the reporting thresholds for filings required under Argentina's antitrust laws for certain transactions.

News round-up In November, Helsinki firm Heikki Haapaniemi failed to save itself from collapse as partners agreed to go their separate ways. The partnership's decision to disband came at the end of a series of defections that rocked the firm throughout 2000.

Shearman & Sterling has advised global coordinators Merrill Lynch and Banco Santander Central Hispanico on the controversial listing of Iberia, Spain's flag carrier airline. The US firm's Paris-based corporate partner Manuel Orillac worked on the deal while Cuatrecasas capital markets specialist Fernando Torrente advised on Spanish law. UK firm Simmons & Simmons acted for the selling shareholder, Sociedad Estatal de Participiciones Industriales (SEPI), the government industrial holding company responsible for the country's privatization programme.

Angela Clist Clifford Chance and Allen & Overy are advising on a whole business-style securitization in the UK utility industry, involving a £2 billion ($2.86 billion) bond issue to finance the sale of Welsh Water to equity-less company Glas Cymru. The deal is the UK's first non-equity funded utility financing, with profits to be returned to customers through rebates on water bills. Stephen Curtis is leading the Clifford Chance team acting for RBS Financial Markets and Schroder Salomon Smith Barney, which are marketing the issue for around a month, before an expected closing in mid-May.

Singapore's DBS hired Freshfields and Allen & Gledhill to advise on its S$10 billion ($5.5billion) acquisition of Hong Kong's Dao Heng, which was advised by Slaughter and May. DBS's $782 million hybrid tier one financing in March prompted speculation that an acquisition was likely. Negotiations are rumoured to have begun in October 2000. DBS is controlled by the Singapore government, while Dao Heng was owned by the Guoco Group, which is controlled by the Kwek family, one of Malaysia's shrewdest business families.

Wall Street firm Cravath, Swain & Moore had a bumper start to the Spring season in March, successful negotiating two deals totalling $15.5 billion. Also involved in the transactions were Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison and Californian firm Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe. Cravath, Swaine & Moore acted for healthcare product maker Johnson & Johnson in April on its agreed a $10.5 billion merger with research-based pharmaceuticals company ALZA. Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe acted for ALZA in a transaction which saw ALZA shareholders receive a fixed exchange ratio of 0.49 shares of Johnson & Johnson common stock for each share of ALZA in a tax-free transaction.

Kevin Muzilla US firms Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy and Weil, Gotshal & Manges have advised on the first refinancing this year of a leveraged buy-out (LBO). The firms acted for lead manager Deutsche Bank and United Biscuits respectively on the $326 million refinancing of last year's LBO of UK biscuit maker by the Finalream consortium, which included Cinven, Paribas Affaire Industrielles, DB Capital Partners and Nabisco The refinancing of the United Biscuits LBO was done through a high-yield bond issue of two of senior subordinated notes, one of £120 million ($173 million) at 10% and redeemable in 2011 and the other of euro 160 million ($143 million) also due in 2011.