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France’s Renault and Japan’s Nissan are combining to create the world’s fourth largest car maker. Renault is taking a 36.8% stake in Nissan Motor, and a 22.5% stake in Nissan Diesel, the company’s truck division. All funds will have been transferred by the end of May. The new company will produce five million vehicles per year.

China’s new contract law is a historic piece of legislation for investors and their counsel as China builds towards a market economy. Lam Wing Wo of Deacons Graham & James, Hong Kong examines the regulations which come into force in October

Deutsche Telekom and Telecom Italia are to form the world’s second largest telecommunications company in what they describe as a merger of equals. The merger will be achieved through a stock swap with Deutsche Telekom shareholders owning 57% of the new company. The German government is selling part of its 72% stake in Deutsche Telekom and will hold a 40% stake in the merged company.

Eversheds’ associated Bulgarian office in the capital Sofia is to have a full time English qualified lawyer based there. Until now the UK firm has been represented in the jurisdiction by local firm Georgiev Todorov & Co, which has 32 lawyers.

UK firm Denton Hall has opened an office in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Pillsbury Madison & Sutro, a San Francisco firm, has lost its executive director, a substantial group of compensation and benefits lawyers, and has had to fire another nine partners.

The $920 million sale in November of a 15% stake in state telecoms company TPSA doubled the capitalization of the Warsaw exchange overnight and affirmed the new government’s commitment to privatization. Ben Maiden reports as lawyers compete for further deals in banking, airlines, oil and steel

As the Czech Republic concentrates on getting privatization right — at the second attempt — lawyers can look forward to a glut of banking and M&A work. Rob Mannix reports

The new regulations on securitization in Italy allow for more flexible structuring of deals. Raffaele Rizzi of Baker & McKenzie, London explains how to match the right structure to the securitized assets

On April 29 1999, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed once again rule amendments and a new proposed rule governing the custody of mutual fund assets outside the US. At the same time, it extended the date for complying with the amendments to the foreign custody rules until May 1 2000. The proposed new rule would govern the use of foreign securities depositories and in recognition that the previous standard of care was unworkable, the proposal drops the requirement that a fund’s board, adviser or domestic custodian find that fund assets will be subject to reasonable care if held by a foreign depository.