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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.

The US water infrastructure needs billions of dollars of investment. As concern mounts that many towns and cities may struggle in the not-too-distant future to provide citizens with clean, safe water, IFLR invited a panel of industry specialists to discuss the obstacles and opportunities created by what may be the US’s next great infrastructure challenge

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.

Lucent Technologies, advised by Cravath, Swaine &Moore, finally pulled off a $3.6 billion initial public offering (IPO) of its optoelectronics division, Agere Systems, in late March, bringing a welcome boost to equity work for some lawyers in the US.

Linklaters & Alliance member De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek is set to become the first Dutch firm to open in China. De Brauw, along with ten other firms, got its licence from the Chinese ministry of justice in Beijing in the latest round of licence distribution. The office will open in Shanghai in September, complementing Linklaters' exisiting office in Beijing. De Brauw's other offices are in Brussels, London, New York and Prague.

Clifford Chance Rogers & Wells has grabbed a fourth bankruptcy lawyer from Morgan, Lewis & Bockius' New York office. Scott Talmadge joined this April, reuniting with former colleagues Margot Schonholtz, Mark Liscio and Jill Kurtzman, who were recruited by Clifford Chance a year ago to develop the financial restructuring practice group.

Although China has operated stock exchanges for a decade, it has never delisted a company. Now the Chinese regulator is tightening its rules to prevent unprofitable companies from continuing to have their shares traded. Liu Haili of Richards Butler, Hong Kong, explains

Despite heavy criticism from various commercial associations, the Swiss government intends to go ahead with a revision of the Act on Cartels of October 6 1995. As the Swiss Federal Council declared on April 4 2001, the government is determined to win parliamentary support at least for the core issue of the revision, which involves the tightening of sanctions.

The EU Committee of Wise Men chaired by Alexandre Lamfalussy has issued its final report on the regulation of European securities markets.