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Type of deal Valuer Acquirer Target Adviser to acquirer (tax) Adviser to target (tax) M&A $182 million IBM Corio Cravath, Swine & Moore, New York, Stephen Gordon Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, San Francisco, David Gerson, Lia Alioto M&A C$3 billion ($2.4 billion) KKR Masonite Deloitte KPMG, Ontario, David Regan M&A Undisclosed Sigma-Aldrich Corporation Degussa agreed to sell the Proglio Group Bryan Cave, St. Louis, Dana Lasley, Philip Wright Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Washington, Claude Stansbury M&A $6.7 billion Verizon Communications MCI Debevoise & Plimpton, New York, Lawrence Cagney, Gary Friedman, Peter Furci, Davis Polk & Wardwell, New York, Michael Mollerus, Nora Muller M&A C$270m ($219 million) Fort Chicago Energy Partners Alberta Ethane Gathering Systems KPMG, Calgary, Wayne Chodzicki, Shane Richardson McCarthy Tétrault, Calgary, Ian Bock; Toronto, James Warnock M&A C$1.8bn Rogers Communications acquired 34% of Rogers Wireless from AT&T Wireless Services 34% of Rogers Wireless KPMG, Ontario, Chris Sexton Fasken Martineau DuMoulin, Toronto, Alan Schwartz, William Bies M&A Undisclosed Firmenich International Noville Cravath, Swaine & Moore, New York, Stephen Gordon, David Ware Norris McLaughlin & Marcus, New York, Robert Marcus, John Eagan M&A $980 million Eastman Kodak Company Creo Stikeman Elliot, Toronto, Dean Allen Kraus Cravath, Swaine & Moore, New York, Michael Schler, Megan Healey M&A £131 million ($248 million) Close Brothers Singer & Friedlander Finance Ashurst, London, Alex Cox Field Fisher Waterhouse, London, Nick Beecham M&A $57 billion Fortress and Cerberus Consortium Boxclever Weil, Gotshal & Manges, London, John Baldry Richards Butler M&A $1.8 billion Procter & Gamble Gillette Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft, New York, Linda Swartz, Alexander Anderson, Yossi Cohen, Russell Nance Davis Polk & Wardwell, New York, Michael Mollerus, Melissa Loewenstern M&A £280 million ($530 million) Holcim Aggregate Industries Slaughter and May Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, London, Robert Kent M&A $182 million HBOS Electra Partners agreed to sell Ashbourne Allen & Overy, London, Vicky Stone Simmons & Simmons, London, Nick Cronkshaw, Clare Shah Type of deal Value Issuer Lead managers Adviser to Issuer Adviser to lead managers Mortgage-backed note programme £20 billion ($37.6 billion) Northern Rock Barclays Capital, Citigroup and Merrill Lynch Sidley Austin Brown & Wood Allen & Overy Loan facility £141 million ($267 million) CommerzLeasing and Immobilien Group (borrowers) Hypo Real Estate Bank NA Herbert Smith

Gide Loyrette Nouel intends to develop a tax capability in all its offices after the appointment of Anthony Davis as a partner in London. Davis moves from the London office of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, where he was also a partner. He is Gide's first tax partner in London.

Last Tuesday on February 22 2005 O2, a UK mobile phone operator, released new software that separates business and personal mobile calls, helping tax directors comply with value-added tax (VAT) requirements.

After years of promising such a step, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has issued Revenue Procedure 2005-12 revising its pre-filing agreement (PFA) programme to provide for advance rulings on whether a taxpayer has a permanent establishment (PE) or a US trade or business (USTB).

Companies in Europe will be able to recover value-added tax (VAT) on input expenses on share issues if the European Court of Justice (ECJ) affirms an advocate general opinion rejecting most European tax authorities’ position on the issue.

Patrick Bignon, ex-global head of EY Law and former world-wide managing partner of Andersen Legal, has launched a new legal management and tax consultancy firm in Paris.

Pursuant to Council Directive 2003/48/EC of June 3 2003 each EU member state will be required to provide to the tax authorities of another member state details of payments of interest or other similar income paid by a person within its jurisdiction to an individual resident in that other member state. The jurisdictions protecting banking secrecy (that is, Belgium, Austria and Luxembourg), however, will not immediately apply such a system of exchange of information, but may instead apply - for a transitional period - a withholding tax on savings income at rates rising over time to 35%.

The re-election of the coalition government has buoyed the business community with heightened expectation of further tax reforms, especially given its clear majority in the Senate from July 1 2005.

The Arab Free Trade Zone came into effect on January 1 2005 marking the elimination of customs duty on intra-Arab trade. However, individual states will still have a "negative list" of trade items which will not qualify for exemption from customs duty. The Arab free trade zone currently comprises 17 member states: Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Egypt, UAE, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, the Palestine Authority, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen. There is ambiguity on how the changes - with effect from January 1 2005 in case of intra-Arab trade- will be implemented as no procedural guidelines on the actual implementation have been issued yet. Imports from non-member countries will continue to be subject to customs duty based on the individual country's legislations. On January 1 2003, the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries (that is, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and UAE) formed a customs union removing the barriers to free trade between member states. A flat rate of duty of 5% is now imposed on most imported goods apart from listed exemptions at the first point of entry into the GCC. Those goods may then move freely between GCC countries without the imposition of any further duty. There is a 'transition' period of three years, until December 31 2005, allowing any teething problems to be ironed out.

Companies in South Africa won some tax relief on February 23 2005 when Trevor Manuel, the minister for finance, announced in the 2005 Budget that the corporate income tax rate would fall from 30% to 29%.