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Bruno Solle: Leaving BFL for Jeanet Associes French law firm Bureau Francis Léfèbvre (BFL) has lost two teams of lawyers (including four partners) to rival French firms. A team of six tax lawyers led by Renaud Streichenberger joined Bredin Prat in November and a four-lawyer team of M&A and tax lawyers is joining Jeantet Associes in January 2003. A tax associate has also left BFL for Clifford Chance. Traditionally BFL has a reputation for retaining its lawyers and the departure of so many lawyers within such a short time frame is surprising.

US firm Greenberg Traurig is moving into Europe and opening offices in Amsterdam and Zurich in January 2003. Both offices will have a strong tax focus initially with local hires including former partners from PricewaterhouseCoopers. This makes Greenberg Traurig the second US law firm (alongside Baker & McKenzie) with offices in the Netherlands.

Type of deal Value Acquirer Target Adviser to acquirer (tax) Adviser to target (tax) merger undisclosed Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, West Indies Holdings Barclays Caribbean Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, London, Jonathan Cooklin, Sebastian Lawson-Foia Clifford Chance, London, Douglas French disposal $1.5 billion State Street parts of Deutsche Bank's global securities services business Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz, New York, Eiko Stange, Joshua Holmes; Linklaters, London, Liz Conway, Conor Brindley; Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson Shearman & Sterling, New York, Peter Lyons; London, Michael McGowan, Iain Scoon, John Peterson, Esther Jeapes; Munich, Gottfried Breuninger, Arnd Weissgerber acquisition $1.16 billion LW Investments (Barclay Brothers) Littlewoods Lovells, London, Daniel Friel, Mathew Oliver, Philip Harle Herbert Smith, London, Howard Murray, Rob Young acquisition $14 billion HSBC Holdings Household International Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, New York, Yaron Reich, David Arroyo; Norton Rose, London, Chris Norfolk Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz, New York, Jared Rusman, Joshua Holmes acquisition $1.25 billion NBC Bravo owned by Cablevision Systems. In return for NBC's ownership of Cablevision and Rainbow Media. MGM also sold its 20% interest in Bravo to NBC. Shearman & Sterling, New York, Washington, Laurence Bambino, Edward Park Sullivan & Cromwell, New York, William Indoe, Andrew Mason, John Sweet; Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson advised MGM, New York, Joel Scharfstein acquisition £900 million ($1.43 billion) Argos Homebase Group, owned by Permira Funds Linklaters, London, Guy Brannan, Stephen Pevsner Clifford Chance, London, James Plummer merger £1.25 billion ($1.99 billion) Logica CMG Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, London, Francis Sandison, Charlotte Jones Linklaters, London, Victoria Garton, Mark Kingstone disposal undisclosed Bain Capital SigmaKalon (paints group of TotalFinaElf) Ashurst Morris Crisp, Paris, Thomas Forschbach, Landwell & Associes Freshfields, Paris, Antoine Colonna D'Istria; London, Francis Sandison leveraged buy-out/disposal $1.7 billion Bain Capital Partners; Thomas H Lee Partners Houghton Mifflin owned by Vivendi Universal Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, New York, Gary Mandel; London, Meredith Jones Weil Gotshal & Manges, New York, Kimberly Blanchard acquisition £1.4 billion ($2.24 billion) Powergen TXU Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, London, Colin Hargreaves, Caspar Fox Herbert Smith, London, Neil Warriner, Derek Hill, Nikol Davies, Maxim Sokov

Transfer pricing specialist David Lewis has joined Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu in Australia. He previously spent 39 years with the Australian Taxation Office before joining the firm's global transfer pricing group in November 2002.

Korea has revised treaties with Germany, and Jordan and is considering amending its treaty with Malaysia

Following the lead of the Isle of Man earlier this year and Jersey in mid-November, Guernsey has revealed plans to reduce general corporate tax to 0%

Jeantet Associés has raided rival French firm Bureau Francis Lefebvre to boost its corporate, restructuring and M&A department

To encourage spending, the Argentine government has temporarily lowered VAT through Decree 2312/2002 published on November 15 2002. The Decree reduces the general VAT rate from 21% to 19% for the taxable events between November 18 2002 and January 17 2003 inclusive.

Clifford Chance is advising on the sale of Homebase Group in the UK to Argos (GUS plc) for approximately £900 million ($1.411 billion). Clifford Chance is advising the Permira Funds and management shareholders on the sale. Permira acquired Homebase from J Sainsbury last year. Clifford Chance associate James Plummer advised on tax matters and Jonathan Beastall led the corporate team. Linklaters advised Argos.

A debt-to-equity swap (DES) is a term used for an exchange between a debt and an equity resulting from an agreement between the creditor and the debtor. It is performed when the debtor needs positive net equity or needs to improve its financial condition by reducing interest-bearing debts. The DES may take place as a result of a legal requirement, a private agreement between the debtor and creditor, or both.