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The May 1996 edition of International Financial Law Review (see page 50) reported that the New Zealand government planned to abolish the right of appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. The government has recently announced that it has scrapped this plan.

Spanish firms J & A Garrigues and Arthur Andersen ALT have completed their merger with partners approving the new partnership on January 31 1997. The firm will be known as J & A Garrigues Andersen with Andersen staff relocating to Garrigues' offices as much for symbolic as practical reasons. "We want to differentiate them clearly and move them away from where they were," comments Ramon Lladó, partner from the former J & A Garrigues.

• US firm Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly has opened an office in Geneva. Jean Russotto, managing partner in the firm's Brussels office, will work out of the office of Swiss firm Cabinet Mayor in Geneva. The new office is to complement the work the firm does in Brussels in financial services, corporate, trade and tax law.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Roche Holding of Switzerland is buying US company Tastemaker for an estimated US$1 billion. The transaction is planned to boost Roche's flavours and fragrances division, Givaudan-Roure.

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.