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By Rodney Moore, KPMG in Australia

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

The Advocate General's opinion in Marks & Spencer may have provided taxpayers with ammunition to attack member states' tax consolidation rules. However, the overall position is far from clear, argues Mark Persoff of Clifford Chance

Gordon Brown: Will continue corporate tax consultation Gordon Brown, the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, has assured business leaders that his government shares their objective of making the UK's tax regime internationally competitive.

By Jim Yager, KPMG in Canada

On May 10 the Treasury Department issued Notice 2005-38, the second in a series of notices that provide guidance for US companies that elect to repatriate earnings from foreign subsidiaries to take advantage of the temporary reduced tax rate available under Internal Revenue Code (IRC) section 965. Section 965 enacted as part of last year's American Jobs Creation Act, provides for a special 85% dividends received deduction for certain dividend repatriations. The first round of section 965 guidance was issued in January as Notice 2005-10.

By John Carver, KPMG in Switzerland