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On May 11 2001, the board of directors Colombian Central Bank (Banco de la República) issued External Resolution No. 2 of 2001 reforming articles 48, 49, 50 and 51 of External Resolution No. 8 of 2000, issued by the same entity, which contains the Foreign Exchange Regime. The articles that were reformed comprise the special foreign exchange regime applicable to the oil, gas & mining sectors in Colombia. The special regime allows certain entities which participate in the oil, gas and mining sector in Colombia not to repatriate to the Colombian foreign exchange market the revenues they receive from sales made by them in foreign currencies.

Davis, Polk & Wardwell and Clifford Chance have advised on the partial privatization and initial public offering of the Norwegian oil and gas company Statoil. The $2.9 billion deal involved the listing of Statoil in the US and Norway. Jeff Berman, one of the corporate partners at Davis Polk who worked on the deal, said that transaction was an important part of the restructuring taking place in the Norwegian oil industry. "We did this deal under difficult market conditions and to a tight timetable," he said. "But it was also at time when oil and gas prices are very high."

Allen & Overy's recent poach of a securitization specialist from Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe is already paying dividends. Ken Aboud, the jewel in the crown of Orrick's highly regarded Asian securitization team, has just completed Singapore's first securitization to be rated by one of the three leading credit rating agencies. Freshfields advised Fitch IBCA on the S$200 million ($110 million) issue while Wong Partnership, the Singapore firm that formed a failed joint venture with Clifford Chance, advised CapitaLand Residential.

A faltering economy and troubled stock exchanges have forced the German government and industry to seek legal reform to reawaken the markets. Thomas Williams reports from Frankfurt where lawyers are hoping to profit from a change in attitude among rule-makers and corporate clients

John Walker, Milbank Tweed US firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy has helped close the largest static collateralized debt obligation (CDO) in Europe, advising three Portuguese Banks on the second Tagus Global Bond Securitization. At euro1.1 billion ($942 million) the transaction is the largest static CDO in Europe and only the second collateralized bond obligation to include Portuguese debt. Milbank Tweed partner John Walker advised lead managers and arrangers Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank on the transaction that involved an issue of three tranches of bonds at different values and maturity dates on behalf of a syndicate of Portuguese banks. Pedro Cassiano and Paulo Gomez from the Portuguese firm Veira de Almeida & Associados advised the syndicate of banks, including Banco Comercial Português, Espírito Santo Activos Fianceiros and AF Investimentos Gestão de Patrimónios, on Portuguese law.

Christian Lambie, Allen & Overy Building on the success of its 1999 securitization of the UK's Broadgate shopping centre, Allen & Overy has pulled off a similar deal for UBS Warburg. The UK firm has advised the bank as structurer and lead manager on a £575 million ($812 million) for UK property company British Land in the first of two deals it closed in June in the commercial mortgage-backed securitzation field. The transaction involved the issue of secured and unsecured debt by a special purpose vehicle (SPV) of the British Land Group, backed by rental payments from 35 supermarkets leased by to UK grocer J Sainsburys. The debt was then bought and reissued by an orphan company, Werretown Supermarkets Securitizations, which issued two senior tranches of bonds.

The passing of the Commerce Amendment Act in May 2001 marked another step towards the harmonization of Australian and New Zealand business law. Proposed in 1999 by the previous National government and then modified by the present government, it is one of a series of changes in New Zealand competition law, which also includes specific regulatory regimes for parts of the electricity and telecommunications industries.

Hendrik Haag of Hengeler Mueller, Frankfurt, and David Brownwood of Cravath, Swaine & Moore, London, explain the structure of Deutsche Börse’s marketing leading IPO

The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) on May 17 2001 unveiled the long-awaited online price bidding proposal, a new mechanism of price fixing in initial public offerings (IPOs). The proposed scheme is intended to allow market forces of supply and demand to determine the price of primary securities offerings.

On May 29 the Banks Law was amended for the second time within two years of its enactment. The main goal of the Amendments is to bring the Turkish banking sector closer to EU standards and to clarify the authority of the Saving Deposits Insurance Fund in its dealings with the problem banks transferred to it and their shareholders.