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Daniel Chan, formerly of Baker & McKenzie's Hong Kong tax practice, has joined DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary as head of tax for Asia. Chan specializes in the tax aspects of inbound investment into China. His practice covers corporate tax planning, tax incentives, M&A and indirect taxes.

The Advocate General (AG) of the ECJ has recently given his opinion in the Halifax case. It is somewhat uncertain to what extent this helps Halifax.

By René Philips, Ann De Roey and Anthony Huyghebaert, KPMG in Belgium

Type of deal Valuer Acquirer Target Adviser to acquirer (tax) Adviser to target (tax) M&A £517 million ($974 million) Retail Property Holdings Trust, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Land Securities Group, made a recommended cash offer for Tops Estates Tops Estates Slaughter and May, London, Steve Edge, Alisa Greda, James Hart Berwin Leighton Paisner, London, Gary Richards M&A €241 million ($310.5 million) International Petroleum Investment Company OMV agreed to sell Agrolinz Melamine International DLA Weiss-Tessbach OMV was advised by Cerha Hempel Spiegelfeld Hlawati, Vienna, Clemens Hasenauer M&A €4.4billion ($5.7 billion) A consortium led by Access Industries and The Chatterjee Group agreed to acquire Basell BASF and Royal Dutch/Shell agreed to sell Basell Access Industries was advised by Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle, New York, William Bricker Royal Dutch/Shell was advised by Allen & Overy, London, Patrick Mears M&A €4 billion ($5.1 billion) Fresenius Medical Care Renal Care Group O'Melveny & Myers, New York, Dan Dunn, Stewart McMichael Cravath, Swaine & Moore, New York, Michael Schler, Sharon Mendelson M&A A$1.4 billion ($1.08 billion) Ramsay Health Care Affinity Health Blake Dawson Waldron, Sydney, Barbara Phair Mallesons M&A £577 million ($1.07 billion) Sabre Holdings launched a takeover bid for Lastminute.com Lastminute.com Slaughter and May, London, Graham Airs, Clare Richardson Herbert Smith, London, Howard Murray M&A £200 million ($370 million) and a further £5 million ($9.2 million) of deferred contingent consideration Montagu Private Equity Exel agreed to sell Cory Environmental DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary, London, Michael McCormack, Kassim Meghjee; KPMG, London, Brendan O'Grady, Iain Clarke, Mat Macauley, Scott McCrorie Exel was advised in house and by Slaughter and May, London, Martin Walker M&A £100 million ($183 million) An entity backed by Nick Leslau and Tom Hunter Blackstone Group and Southern Cross Healthcare agreed to sell 21 care homes SJ Berwin, London, Pat Dugdale, Giles Bavister Ashurst, London, Sue Crawford, Nicholas Gardner M&A Undisclosed Vue Cinemas Vue Cinemas agreed to buy the Ster Century UK and Ireland cinema circuit Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw, London, Andrew Stanger, Alex Jupp Jones Day, London, Blaise Marin-Curtoud M&A $469 million Juniper Networks Peribit Networks Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Palo Alto, Ivan Humphreys, Lia Alioto Fenwick & West, Mountain View, California, Ron Schrotenboer, Andrew Kim M&A Undisclosed Advent International Corporation Fat Face Holdings Berwin Leighton Paisner, London, Sacha Pertwee, Richard Harbot Lovells, London, Sean Finn; KPMG, London, Peter Woodall, James Watts M&A $1.35 billion Oneok agreed to acquire the natural gas liquids assets of Koch Industries Koch Industries Gable & Gotwals Weil, Gotshal & Manges, New York, Helyn Goldstein, Chayim Neubort M&A $1.57 billion Yell Group Thomas H Lee Partners, CIVC Partners and TransWestern's management agreed to sell TransWestern Holdings Weil, Gotshal & Manges, New York, Kimberly Blanchard, Michael Kam, Anna Grant, Jen Zheng Kirkland & Ellis, New York, Ron Schrotenboer, Andrew Kim M&A $3.36 billion MTC (Kuwait) Celtel International (principally an African mobile telecoms group with a Dutch head office) KPMG, London, Simon Palmer, Cliff White, Lucy Elwes Ernst & Young M&A $800 million Bank of Nova Scotia Unilever agreed to sell its prestige-fragrance business Covington & Burling, New York, Harry Hives, Robert Heller Cravath, Swaine & Moore, New York, Michael Schler, Megan Healey Type of deal Value Issuer Lead managers Adviser to Issuer Adviser to lead managers Share issue C$300 million ($240 million) Coty A syndicate of underwriters led by Scotia Capital McCarthy Tétrault, Toronto, Michael Quigley, Gabrielle Richards Osler Hoskin & Harcourt, Toronto, Timothy Hughes, Dan McIntosh

Los Angeles-based international investment bank, Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin, released its transfer pricing growth strategy today, after aggressively hiring transfer pricing professionals from the big-four professional services firms, particularly Ernst & Young.

The American Bar Association (ABA) has appointed Reginald Clark, a partner of Sutherland Asbill & Brennan's tax practice in Atlanta, to the position of chair of the corporate tax committee in the section of taxation for 2005-2006. Clark's practice at Sutherland is focused on corporate taxation, M&A and restructuring. At the ABA he will be responsible for coordinating all the committee's activities.

Kenneth Simon, former vice president of taxes at Avon Products, has moved to a similar position at Herbalife, a global network marketing company that sells nutritional supplement and personal care products.

Ted Keen: Has yet to agree a departure date with KPMG Ballentine Barbera Group (BBG), the US-based transfer pricing boutique, is expanding into Europe with the hire of Ted Keen, KPMG's partner in charge of transfer pricing economics for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Keen will make the switch after agreeing a departure date with KPMG.