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The Helsinki office of White & Case is advising the Republic of Finland and Sonera Group on the sale of the government’s 21.9% stake in Sonera. The transaction is the largest equity offering to date by a Finnish issuer as a total value of over $1.4 billion.

Germany’s Deutsche Bank confirmed on November 23 that it was in the advanced stages of talks to buy US bank holding company Bankers Trust. The merger would create the world’s fifth-largest fund manager, with $500 billion-worth of assets.

The Polish government has completed the second stage of its sale of a 15% stake of Telekomunikacja Polska SA (TPSA), the state telecoms company.

UK law firm Stephenson Harwood is to join forces in Brussels with Italian firm De Berti Jacchia Perno & Associati and Paris firm Barbé Carpentier Thibault Groener. The firm’s association with France’s largest law firm, Fidal, part of the KPMG legal network, is over. In its new association Stephenson Harwood plans to look at joint business

Guernsey law firm, Ferbrache & Co (soon to be renamed Ferbrache Morgan) plans to poach partners from City firms in a bid to compete with other firms on the island. The planned growth has resulted from Ferbrache & Co receiving more work as a result of its alliance with The Bank of East Asia.

The European Commission has approved Bertelsmann's sale of its BMG Music Publishing business to Universal under the EC Merger Regulation.

As consolidation in the Swiss legal market continues, lawyers are divided over the need to look beyond national boundaries. Stephen Mulrenan reports from Zurich and Geneva

Dutch pharmaceutical and chemicals company Akzo Nobel has launched a Dm1 billion ($604 million) Eurobond, one of the first by a single-A credit rated company since the devaluation of the Russian rouble in August and the following credit crisis. The offering is also the first Akzo Nobel has made in the Deutschmark market. Senior banking associate, Grant Jenkins, of Dutch law firm Loeff Claeys Verbeke represented the lead managers ABN Amro (Germany) and Warburg Dillon Read.

US law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe acted as US legal advisers and US tax advisers to Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) on the launch of its $2 billion 10-year global bond. Partners Christopher Moore and Carl Lyon led the team for Orrick Herrington. The TVA had planned to raise $1 billion, but poor US employment figures issued early on launch day led to strong bond trading and encouraged the TVA to increase the size of the issue. Proceeds from the bond issue will be used to help repay debt owed by the TVA to the US Treasury. In October, the TVA gained the approval of Congress to raise $3.2 billion in Federal Financing Bank (FFB) debt. The new issue is expected to be listed on the New York, Singapore, Hong Kong and Luxembourg stock exchanges.

Oryx Energy and Kerr-McGee have announced plans to merge in a deal worth $4 billion. The combined company will be the fourth largest oil exploration and production company in the US. It will have the equivalent of one billion barrels of oil reserves in oil and gas and an enterprise value of $6 billion. The Kerr-McGee/Oryx merger will consist of a tax free pooling of assets including debt and stock. Oryx shareholders will receive Kerr-McGee stock valued at about $1.8 billion. Kerr-McGee will assume about $1.3 billion of Oryx debt. The new company will be called Kerr-McGee.