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Gallaher Group, the UK's largest manufacturer of tobacco products, which manufactures Benson and Hedges, Silk Cut, Hamlet cigars and Condor pipe tobacco, has demerged from American Brands and listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Brazil’s unsatisfactory arbitration law has been updated to make this form of dispute resolution more attractive. By Walter Douglas Stuber and Noemia Mayumi Fukugauti of Amaro, Stuber e Advogados Associados, São Paulo

In spite of the decision in the Scandex case, the liability of directors of foreign-based financial services companies selling into the UK in contravention of FSA rules remains unclear. By David Greene of Edwin Coe, London

The National Securities Commission (Comisión Nacional de Valores or CNV) has enacted its General Resolution No. 288, which aims to prevent money-laundering. The Resolution sets out general rules associated with the information to be provided by the following entities:

The Prague office of UK firm Allen & Overy is adding five Czech and UK-qualified lawyers in the next few months. This will bring the total number of lawyers in the office to 12: four Czech advokats and four junior Czech lawyers and four UK-qualifieds. Graham Donnell, managing partner of the office, explains that the growth is in response to an increased workload, particularly in banking and finance.

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.