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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

Mark Green and Alan Kenworthy have left Ernst & Young and joined Australian law firm Minter Ellison as partners. Green specializes in tax and related structuring issues, and has been extensively involved in the energy and infrastructure sectors.

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

7th Floor, Wisma Hamzah Kwong-Hing

Singapore's finance minister Lee Hsien Loong has revealed the details of the ?not ordinarily resident? (NOR) tax break scheme for expatriates living and working in the island republic. The new rules will mean that certain expatriates can pay income tax only on employment income attributable to the number of days spent in Singapore per calendar year, and remit pre-assignment income free from tax for a period of five years of assessment. NOR taxpayers must spend more than 90 days away from Singapore on business and pay at least a minimum of 10% on total employment income.

KIM & CHANG

Level 60, Governor Phillip Tower

PKF is an international association of specialist tax, accounting and business consulting firms, advising clients in diverse industry sectors, through a network of member firms in 160 countries. The PKF Australian Tax Practices have highly trained tax consulting teams with expertise in all areas of corporate and personal taxation with particular specialist skills in corporate restructures, tax audit management, international tax, expatriate taxes, Captial Gains Tax, Goods and Services Tax and research and development concessions.

13th Floor, Gloucester Tower

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.