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Allen & Overy's Warsaw office will be joined by two partners and seven Polish associates from May 1 after UK firm Nabarro Nathanson agreed to close its office and transfer the staff and clients to Allen & Overy. English resident partner Michael Davies, who set up the Nabarro Nathanson office in 1991, joins Allen & Overy as a partner in Warsaw with Polish lawyer Tomasz Dobrowolski. Nabarro's senior partner David Bramson says the move followed a review of strategy. "We have terrific people there but we wanted them to find a safe haven because to make the Warsaw office fly we would have had to put in at least £1 million," he comments.

US firm Chadbourne & Parke has installed recently-acquired project finance partner Ian Johnson as head of a new office in Singapore. Joining him there is senior associate Bruce Rader, who moves to Singapore from New York. The office opened on April 14, and will focus on project finance, capital markets and cross-border transactions. It aims to strengthen the firm's Asian presence and complement the Hong Kong office.

Coudert Brothers has added four project finance partners from the Washington office of McDermott, Will & Emery. Partners Charles Friedlander, George Knapp, Roger Stark and Roger Wagner have practised together since 1985. They joined Coudert's 75-lawyer International Finance Practice Group on March 19 1997. Knapp highlights the international reach of Coudert as the reason for the decision to leave McDermott. "Coudert is one of the only US firms, perhaps the only US firm, with a truly global presence. Coudert covers every region where our clients plan to be."

The new Argentine financial instrument available from the middle of this month offers smaller companies a way to cut the credit risk burden. By Rodolfo Gerardo Papa of Cardenas, Cassagne & Asociados, Buenos Aires

The Colombian government, recognizing the importance of an efficient telecommunications infrastructure, has taken steps in the last few years to liberalize Colombia's regulatory framework. These changes have created significant investment opportunities in a number of areas, including local telephone services.

Privatization: amendments to corporate and capital markets law. On April 10 1997, Congress approved a Bill introducing amendments to Law 6404/76 (Law on Corporations) and 6385/76 (Law on Capital Markets). Rights of minority shareholders have been altered to allow more flexibility in cases of mergers or split-ups. The aim of the Bill is to assist the privatization process.

A new raft of financial services reforms opens the way for more competition from abroad, among other significant reforms. By Paul Belanger of Blake, Cassels & Graydon, Toronto

The Bank of Italy has recently amended Chapter LXI of the Istruzioni di Vigilanza (Supervisory Rules) which govern capital adequacy in relation to market risk and apply to all banks and banking groups with the exception of Italian branches of non-EU banks whose registered offices are in countries belonging to the Group of Ten.

Under the merger control rules of the Austrian Cartel Act (ACA) a pre-closing filing is required if the combined turnover of all participating undertakings amounts to at least Sch3.5 billion (US$290 million), provided that the turnover of at least two undertakings involved in the merger is at least Sch5 million. Because Section 42a para 1 ACA does not qualify the term 'turnover' (Umsatz)in geographic terms, and because the preparatory documents of the Cartel Law Amendment Act confirm the irrelevance of the distinction between domestic and foreign turnover, the Austrian Cartel Court initially applied the threshold to worldwide turnover. From the outset the turnover thresholds for the pre-closing filing requirement under Section 42a para 1 of the ACA have been considered too low. Because the Austrian Cartel Court only applied fairly weak structural link and effects tests to limit the jurisdiction of the court with respect to 'foreign' mergers and business combinations, transactions with a negligible Austrian content were subject to the pre-closing filing requirement and the one-month waiting period provided for under Section 42b ACA.

The last 12 months have seen big changes in the Swedish legal market. Mid-sized firms in particular are taking strategic decisions to merge or make international links. Samantha Wigham reports