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If at first you don't succeed, try again seems to have been the motto underlining the sale of Ballentine Barbera Group, the transfer pricing and valuation advisers, to CRA, the economics, finance and business strategy consultants. The deal cost CRA $22.7 million.

US law firm Morgan Lewis showed its intent to become a leading tax practice on the west-coast and nationally with the hiring of Bill Colgin, a tax controversy specialist, from Fenwick & West.

The Treasury Department and IRS on June 1 2006, released for publication in the Federal Register proposed regulations (Regulations 135866-02) concerning determinations of earnings and profits attributable to stock of controlled foreign corporations (CFCs) – or former CFCs – that are or were involved in certain non-recognition transactions.

The Swiss Federal Council has approved the amendment of the value-added tax (VAT) ordinance, effective as of July 1 2006. In so doing a political motion requesting more legal certainty and less VAT formalism was implemented in record time.

By Sean Foley, Erik Skarstad and Anne Welsh (US)

By Margaret Critzer (US), Andrew Hickman (UK) and Dirk Van Stappen (Belgium)

Cyprus' introduction of a new tax system, compliant with EU and OECD norms, on January 1 2003, combined with its entrance into the EU on May 1 2004 has led to a spectacular influx of foreign capital into the country, explains Rutger Kriek of Consulco

Leading tax executives and advisers celebrated the first-class international tax work done in Europe over the last 12 months at the second European Tax Awards in London

Type of deal Value Acquirer Target Adviser to acquirer (tax) Adviser to target (tax) Acquisition $463 million Coloplast (Denmark) Mentor Corporation (US) Gide Loyrette Nouel France Welch Spell US Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati US Acquisition €109.9 million ($137.9 million) Ercros (Spain) Derivados Forestales (Spain) Uría Menéndez Spain Roca Junyent Spain Cortada Spain Acquisition £10.1 billion ($18.3 billion) Ferrovial consortium (International) BAA (UK) Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Roger Berner, Tom Passingham, Emma Bailey (UK) Fasken Martineau Alain Ranger, Gilles Carli (Canada) O'Melveny & Myers UK Herbert Smith Isaac Zailer, William Arrenberg (UK) Acquisition £3.6 billion ($6.52 billion) Resolution (UK) Abbey National life insurance (UK) Herbert Smith Howard Murray (UK) Slaughter and May Sara Luder, Simon Leatherman (UK) Acquisition $674.5 million Expro (UK) PowerWell (US) Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer UK Acquisition £346 million ($627 million) Holmar (US) telent (UK) Allen & Overy UK Slaughter and May UK Acquisition undisclosed Allianz Cornhill (UK) Home and Legacy Insurance (UK) Slaughter and May Graham Earles, Daphna Zvi (UK) Macfarlanes UK Acquisition undisclosed Triton (Europe) Dematic (Germany) Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Germany Acquisition undisclosed Electronic Arts (US) Mythic Entertainment (US) Fenwick & West David Forst, Timothy Fitzgibbon (US) Acquisition $16.6 billion Johnson & Johnson (US) Pfizer Consumer Healthcare (US) Cravath Swaine & Moore William Brannan, Christian Brause (US) Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft US Merger $40 billion (total enterprise value) Phelps Dodge (US) Inco (US), Falconbridge (US) Debevoise & Plimpton Peter Furci (US) Acquisition £253 million ($458.5 million) British Land (UK) BL Davidson (UK) SJ Berwin UK Slaughter and May Graham Iversen, Paul Fahy (UK) Acquisition £163 million ($295 million) Exponent (UK) Trainline (UK) Travers Smith UK Herbert Smith Bradley Phillips, Andrea Craven (UK) Type of deal Value Issuer Lead managers Adviser to Issuer Adviser to lead managers Debt refinancing €1.6 billion ($2 billion) Prisa (UK) Syndicates of 40 banks (International) Uría Menéndez Spain Clifford Chance Spain Debt refinancing £138 million ($250.1 million) Tragus (UK) Barclays (UK) Ashurst Patricia Allen (UK) DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary UK IPO $9.7 billion Bank of China (China) BOC International, Goldman Sachs (US), UBS (US) Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Hong Kong Jun He Law Offices China Sullivan & Cromwell US Allen & Overy Hong Kong Shearman & Sterling Larry Crouch (US) Restructuring €270 million ($338.7 million) Pullmantur (Portugal) Banco Español De Crédito (Spain) Uría Menéndez Guillermo Canalejo (Spain) Debt capital markets $5.3 billion BBVA (Spain) JP Morgan (US), Lehman Brothers (US) Uría Menéndez Jesús López-Tello, Víctor Martín (Spain) Sidley Austin Brown & Wood US Bond issue €500 million ($627.2 million) Solvay (France) Deutsche Bank (Germany) Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Henk Verstraete (Belgium) Antoine Colonna d'Istria, Laurent Dabernat (France) IPO €235 million ($294.8 million) General de Alquiler de Maquinaria (Spain) Morgan Stanley (US) Uría Menéndez Spain Shearman & Sterling US Cuatrecasas Spain Winston & Strawn US

The proposed reduction of the Netherlands' corporate income tax rate to 25.5 %, announced in the draft reforms of the Dutch Corporate Income Tax Act (CITA), will bring the country into line with the larger EU jurisdictions. The reforms, that are due to come into force on January 1 next year, also contain the contentious introduction of separate boxes for patent and group interest income, the legality of which is being debated with EU Commission.