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UK firm Stephenson Harwood is set to open an office in Piraeus, Greece and has recruited a local shipping lawyer in Spain.

The trend towards structuring initial offshore purchases in US-registered public offerings as Regulation S transactions raises a number of legal questions. By David E Neuville of Baker & McKenzie, Hong Kong

The Hungarian Ministry of Justice is considering a draft law for foreign lawyers in Hungary. The main elements are likely to be a requirement that foreign firms register with the Hungarian Bar and not just the Ministry of Trade, and that foreign firms form associations with local firms. Stephen Forster, of McKenna Ormai, Budapest (an association of a Hungarian and a British firm), says: "The proposals seem quite reasonable, although they are at an early stage." Laszlo Kopits of Weil, Gotshal & Manges, Budapest, says: "All lawyers recognize that the operation of foreign firms must be regulated, rather than the free-for-all which now exists."

Law firms in Australia and New Zealand are meeting the onslaught of competition from professional services firms by trimming and streamlining services. The trend is towards a high-tech, highly specialized and user friendly law firm. Morgan Acker reports

The Finnish Council of State recently published a bill regarding the further implementation of the EU Directive on undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities (UCITS; 85/611/EEC) in order to improve and maintain the international competitiveness of Finnish investment funds.

The New Zealand Stock Exchange (NZSE) has launched a new managed fund (the TeNZ fund) which tracks the NZSE10 Index (the Index). The Index is a weighted index made up of selected securities of New Zealand's top 10 listed companies, by market capitalization, which has the principal purpose of providing a measure of price trends of those companies. The TeNZ fund is a passive fund which will own a diversified portfolio of securities in the same weightings as the Index with the aim of providing investment results that correspond to the performance of the Index. Investors will purchase units in the fund, and the units will be tradeable on the NZSE.

In the early 1980s, Riggs National Bank of Washington DC made loans to several wholly-owned entities of Peru. These loans were renewed in 1983 under the restructuring of Peru's external debt.

ROAD MANAGEMENT GROUP

Commercial Banking Law in the PRC

UK firm Herbert Smith has been voted top adviser on international energy law in Petroleum Economist's 1996 Energy Finance Poll. The poll, based on responses from over 100 international energy companies, has UK-based Allen & Overy relegated from last year's winner to third place behind Herbert Smith and US firm Vinson & Elkins.