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In contrast with Paul Hastings and Cadwalader, Washington's McKenna & Cuneo opened a small London office in March and has yet to announce its presence. The firm is trying to keep the office quiet. Office head Patrick Doyle says: "We have good relationships with many UK firms. We don't want to create the impression that coming to London would disrupt our relationships with London firms." Doyle says that he and his colleague Saleem Malik aim to "keep our heads down – we might announce something in a year or so". The firm will wait until US lawyers have come to London to reassure UK firms as to McKenna & Cuneo's intentions before making an announcement.

Nationwide Australian firm Blake Dawson Waldron has agreed a merger with Sydney's tax and corporate boutique Rosenblum & Partners. The two firms merged with effect from July 1. The expanded firm will continue to be known as Blake Dawson Waldron. The move takes the firm to over 500 lawyers, with 144 partners.

The US$400 million financing of the ECK Generating (ECKG) power plant in Kladno, Czech Republic, has reached financial closure. This is the first independent power project in the Czech Republic to be funded on a project finance basis. The financing is structured in Czech koruna, Deutschmarks and dollars.

The government of Panama has sold a 49% stake in the country's national telephone company, Intel, in central America's first telecoms privatization. UK telecoms company Cable & Wireless paid US$632 million in cash for the stake, beating rival bidder GTE Corporation of Stamford.

The company law reform package which came into force on July 1 1994 introduced a substantially simpler amalgamation procedure into New Zealand law. This has resulted in an increased number of corporate restructurings. The statutory procedure enables one or more companies to be absorbed into another existing company, or two or more companies to be joined so as to form a new company.

UK firm Simmons & Simmons has effectively taken over its Italian associate firm, Grippo e Associati, based in Milan & Rome. The firms have operated together under the name Grippo, Associati e Simmons & Simmons since May 1993. The former managing partner of Simmons & Simmons, Alasdair Neil, has taken up the role of managing director of the Italian offices and is moving to Milan shortly. He says: "We chose to do this because the arrangement was working so well." The new name of the firm will be Simmons & Simmons Grippo. The move follows Clifford Chance's decision to bring some of its Italian partners into the UK partnership, and Freshfields opening Italian offices. However Neil denies it is a way of rewarding the Italian lawyers. "It is a way of taking things to their logical conclusion and demonstrates that they have fully become a part of Simmons & Simmons." Senior partner of the Italian offices, Eugenio Grippo, explains: "The original office was a joint venture, in which Simmons had a smaller interest than Grippo e Associati. Now the Italian group is part and parcel of Simmons & Simmons." The offices will retain his name as long as he stays with the firm, and also, he says, "to remind our clients that we are an Italian firm although we have become more international". As a result of the merger, three Italian partners become partners in Simmons & Simmons: Bruno Gattai, Filippo Pingue and Stefano Speroni. Grippo is already a partner of the UK firm.

The first International Financial Law Review survey of the mergers and acquisitions market has identified the leading firms advising on deals worth US$1 billion or more. By Richard Forster

The flood of US firms entering or expanding in the London market shows no sign of stopping. Atlanta-based Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP opened an office in June. New York's Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft will open its office at the start of September. Cadwalader is being particularly aggressive in its strategy. Mitchell Sonkin, a member of the firm's management committee, says the firm is aiming to open with 15 or more lawyers , and hopes to expand that to more than 25 within a year. All but a few of them will be UK-qualified, he predicts. The firm's eventual goal is to have an office of between 50 and 75 lawyers, and Sonkin expects that to be achieved within three to four years.

Ernst and Young and a major US law firm are looking to move into the Canadian market. A source has confirmed that Ernst & Young is one of the firms behind an anonymous recruitment advertisement placed in a Canadian magazine. The advert, placed in The Ontario Reports on May 16, offers salaries up to C$400,000 (US$290,000) in a bid to poach "the best talent in Toronto" and states that "the firm is determined to quickly become a major tier-one firm". A source at ZSA Legal Recruitment, which placed the advert, confirms the agency is working for "a big six accountancy firm and a US law firm". Another source has confirmed market rumours that linked the advertisement to Ernst & Young. The firm has already displayed its interest in the Canadian legal market by developing a relationship with the Canadian law firm Donahue & Co. Rob Lord, vice-chairman of Professional Services for Ernst & Young in Toronto, refuses to confirm or deny the firm's involvement with ZSA. However, he does say that the legal market is of considerable interest to Ernst & Young, and indicates that the firm will make an announcement in the future. The other big six accountancy firms denied any involvement with the advertisement. The identity of the US law firm is unknown.

The commission considering financial regulation in Australia has recommended a new format for regulation, aimed at boosting financial services competition. By Don Harding of Freehill Hollingdale & Page, Sydney