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The European Investment Bank (EIB) made the first issue of Euro-denominated bonds, under Luxembourg law. The Euro 1 billion 5.25% notes are due in 2004 and will be payable in Ecu until the third stage of monetary union (planned for January 1999), and thereafter in Euros. Banque Paribas, Caisse des Depôts et Consignations and Swiss Bank Corporation managed the issue.

International marine container lessor, passenger transport and hotels company Sea Containers has completed a securitization of marine cargo containers. This is the first securitization using equipment rather than a stream of payments as assets. The transaction involved the transfer by Sea Containers of a portion of its marine containers and related assets to a special purpose Bermuda subsidiary, Sea Containers SPC. SPC is using the equipment as collateral for up to US$200 million in notes.

UK construction lawyer Tim Steadman will join Clifford Chance as a partner in March. He moves from Baker & McKenzie's London office where he has been a construction partner for the past five years.

Leading international Italian firm Studio Legale Fondato da Francesco Carnelutti has opened an office in Rome. The office will be integrated with the firm's Milan office.

Canada's Stikeman, Elliott opened an office in Sydney on February 4. Sydney is the firm's 14th office, and the ninth outside Canada. The office will be staffed by Roy Randall, Brian Hansen and Elizabeth Turner.

German firm Pünder, Volhard, Weber & Axster looks set to develop a UK finance practice by appointing senior UK banking and finance lawyers in Frankfurt and Düsseldorf. Recruitment advertisements offering partnership and senior assistant positions in a large German practice with international offices have appeared in the UK press with consultants sworn to secrecy. Rumours that Germany's other financial heavyweights Bruckhaus Westrick Stegemann and Hengeler Mueller Weitzel Wirtz were in the market have been denied, but at Pünder, where there are already US and UK lawyers, partner Kersten von Schenk does not deny that moves are underway. "At this stage I have no comments to make," says von Schenk.

Although small in volume compared with fixed-income and equity products, the market for emerging markets OTC derivative instruments looks set to grow. Ovidio E Diaz Espino, of J P Morgan & Co, looks at the products available and the obstacles they still face

The regulations which recently came into force in China have created problems in the area of foreign-sourced financing but their effects have been offset by other measures. By Brian Hansen and Guanxi Zheng of Stikeman, Elliott, Hong Kong

Reforms last year gave Brazilian traders the opportunity to lend stock in an organized market for the first time. Fernando Prado Ferreira and Guilherme de Almeida Leite of Pinheiro Neto, São Paulo, look at the system in practice

The adoption of a new Regulation M on issue-related market activities should facilitate cross-border capital raisings. By Richard Muglia and Joel Roberto of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, London