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Asia Pacific Regional Office

29th Floor, Wing On Centre

Garrigues is finalizing an exclusive alliance with Deloitte & Touche, giving the tax group of the independent Spanish law firm access to a worldwide tax network. A partner vote will take place during the first week of June, which is expected to be in support of the referral agreement that would serve around 40% of the firm's 110 partners.

This year's Asia survey finds PricewaterhouseCoopers holding on to its premier position in the region. Law firms, in the meantime, are failing to forge ahead. Georgina Stanley investigates what's new, and what clients are looking for

DATE TYPE OF DEAL VALUE TARGET ACQUIRER/ ISSUER HOLDER/ UNDERWRITER ADVISERS TO TARGET ADVISERS TO ACQUIRER/ ISSUER ADVISERS TO HOLDER/ UNDERWRITER 20/04/02 convertible bond offering $1.1 billion n/a Anglo American Plc (US/UK) Salomon Brothers International Ltd (US) n/a Linklaters, London, Stephen Taylor Simon Marks Allen & Overy, London, David Lewis, Amrit Dehal 22/04/02 merger £15 billion ($21.8 billion) Lattice Group (UK) National Grid (UK) n/a Linklaters, London, Tom Scott, Jonathan Richards Cameron McKenna, London, Simon Meredith, Alison Hughes; Pricewaterhouse-Coopers, London n/a 30/04/02 disposal of UK asset management operation £240 million ($349.5 million) Royal & SunAlliance Investments (UK) Friends Ivory & Sime (UK) Royal & SunAlliance (UK) Allen & Overy, London, David Lewis, Adam Blakemore Norton Rose, London, John Challoner, Judith Watson n/a 02/05/02 acquisition $390 million Luekine Schering AG (Germany) Immunex Corp (US) n/a Cravath Swaine & Moore, New York, Michael Schler, Eric Hilfers Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, New York, Sally Thurston, Peter Seka 03/05/02 debt issue $20 billion n/a Abbey National (UK) Merrill Lynch (US) n/a Slaughter and May, London, Graham Iversen n/a 06/05/02 acquisition £2 billion ($2.91 bilion) First Aqua JVCo Limited (UK) Vivendi Water (UK) n/a Clifford Chance, London, Douglas French, Marian Thomas Simmons & Simmons, London, Nick Cronkshaw, Simon Yates, Martin Shah n/a 06/05/02 acquisition ?2.25 billion ($2.07 billion) DSM (petrochemicals division) (Netherlands) DSM (Netherlands) KPMG, Amsterdam, Marc Temme, Aldo Mariani, Johan Bode, Adrie Dros; Van Bael & Bellis, Amsterdam, Pascal Faes Allen & Overy, London, Tim Stevens n/a n/a 07/05/02 bond offering ?1.25 billion ($1.15 billion) n/a Fortis (Netherlands, Belgium) JP Morgan Securities (US) n/a Davis Polk & Wardwell, New York, Lydia Kess; London Robert Heller Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Brussels, Axel Haelterman, Eelco Van der Stok, Machiel Lamboji, Oliver Hermand, Victor Juttmann 08/05/02 notes offering $300 million n/a Korea Development Bank (Korea) Credit Suisse First Boston (US) n/a Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, Hong Kong, Jinduk Han, Ji-Hyun Kim, Hongki Moon; London, Eric Atkerson Davis Polk & Wardwell, London, John Paton, Robert Heller 21/05/02 acquisition undisclosed Shell-Mex House (UK) Rotch Property (UK) Witkoff (US) n/a Herbert Smith, London, Neil Warriner Clifford Chance, London, Michael Wistow, Nina Buchan

The EU has submitted two lists to the World Trade Organization (WTO) containing details of the US products that it intends to target with import taxes if the dispute over president Bush's 30% steel import tariffs is not resolved. The first list contains items likely to be hit by 100% additional duties from June 18 and contains: dried vegetables; some fruits and fruit juices; rice; a range of men's and women's garments; iron and steel products; printing machinery; spectacles and goggles; and ?articles for funfair, table or parlour games? such as billiards tables and bowling alley equipment.

Effective for accounting periods ending on and after April 1 2002, a tokumei kumiai (TK) with foreign corporations and non-resident individuals that do not have permanent establishments in Japan (non-resident investors) are subject to a 20% withholding tax on the distribution of TK profits under contracts. The 20% withholding tax is the final tax on such distributed TK profits.

Sluggish US investment in new plant and equipment gets a boost from a new depreciation bonus offering a 30% tax discount. Keith Martin of Chadbourne & Parke LLP, Washington looks in detail at how it works

The EU Directive on VAT and E-commerce will take effect from July 1 2003. But exactly what impact will implementation of the new system have on businesses? Alan Sinyor of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, London, finds out