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Belgian firms are no longer content to remain isolated domestic practices. The merger of Liedekerke and Schlitz Linden highlights their international aspirations. Ben Maiden reports from Brussels

US firm Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle is opening an office in Stamford, Connecticut. The firm hopes to build on its corporate and litigation work. George Kahale, firm managing partner, comments: “Stamford is a growing area with a lot of corporate activity, several firms have offices there.”

As part of their joint effort to support the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in central and eastern Europe, the European Commission and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) have reached an agreement to establish a euro125 million SME Facility for the 10 central and eastern European countries that are candidates for European Union (EU) accession.

After meetings with foreign investors, the Vietnamese government has introduced a series of measures to attract foreign capital. Tony Foster and Dang Duong Anh of Freshfields, Hanoi discuss the changes for new and existing investors

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.

Europe-Draft ordinance bans cold calling

Middle East & Africa-Recovery of loan Interest

Swiss pharmaceuticals company Novartis is selling its Wasa crispbread unit to Italy’s Barilla Alimentare. The Italian food company is paying Sfr475 million ($315 million) including debt. The deal is part of Novartis’s move to refocus its consumer health division.

A consortium including British Gas and Shell has bought a $1 billion controlling stake (53%) in Gas de Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest natural gas distributor*. This was the Brazilian government’s first privatization since the devaluation of the real in January. Gas de Sao Paulo serves around 300,000 mainly industrial customers in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s most populous state. The consortium’s bid was chosen in preference to several rival consortia, including one led by Enron and Agip of Italy.

The UK’s General Electric Company (GEC) is buying Fore Systems, a Pittsburgh-based Internet equipment supplier. GEC recently agreed to sell its defence business to British Aerospace and is now concentrating on building up its telecoms and Internet capabilities. This acquisition follows GEC’s purchase of US telecoms company, Reltec.