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One of the UK's leading commercial firms seeks senior lawyers to work on top quality work within a dynamic team. Main areas of specialising include corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, insolvency, tax and pensions. Clients across the UK and international. Ref: 3412.A Contact: Simone Templeton, Garfield Robbins

High-income equity-linked bondholders may be liable to pay income tax if the UK Inland Revenue gets its way

The Thai Ministry of Finance is to make the process of claiming VAT refunds quicker and easier for companies that use local raw materials, according to a report in Bangkok-based newspaper Krungthep Turakij. New regulations designed to extend the refunds to more manufacturers will ultimately apply to all industries, but will be introduced for the textile industry first because it is a major export earner for the country.

Romano Prodi, president of the European Commission, has called for a European tax to finance the EU budget

China may revise the rate of tax imposed on advertising following a sharp slowdown in the growth of company spending on the area

Ashurst Morris Crisp has boosted its European tax practice with a lateral hire in Italy and a new office in Germany. Richard Engl has folded his tax consultancy firm RLE to join Ashursts as a partner-level steuerberater (tax adviser) in Munich. The office opened on May 2 and Engl brought three assistants from his previous firm with him. Litigation partner Karl Wach, previously at Linklaters, also joined the office.

New York firm Debevoise & Plimpton is to open an office in Frankfurt. The office will open this summer with three Debevoise corporate partners, Thomas Schurrle, a corporate partner from Norr Stiefenhofer Lutz, and Dr Friedrich Hey, a tax partner who left the New York office of Linklaters Oppenhoff & Rädler at the end of last year. He will be joining the firm in August after finishing his gardening leave, and will spend several months in New York getting to know the people so that he is better able to provide international advice before moving to Frankfurt later in the year.

Having already backed out of the Kyoto agreement, the US has now thrown the OECD's initiative against harmful tax practices into question. US Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill issued a statement on May 10, stating that the US will not be backing the OECD initiative as it stands and calling for amendments to the proposal.

Like many other members of the OECD and the EU, Spain has enacted very few special tax provisions that apply to e-business. However, to clarify and fix its position in the various international forums where the taxation of e-commerce is being analyzed, in early 1999 Spain's secretary of state for taxes set up a working group whose remit was to conduct thorough research in this area. In July 26 2000, the group submitted its final report and an updated summary was released in October 2000. Two specific issues are of significance to foreign enterprises operating in Spain arising out of the preliminary position on the subject adopted by Spain that departs from current popular opinion.

DATE TYPE OF DEAL VALUE ACQUIRER TARGET HOLDER ADVISERS TO TARGET ADVISERS TO ACQUIRER ADVISERS TO HOLDER 26/05/01 acquisition $675 million Old Mutual, UK St Paul Companies Inc n/a Sullivan & Cromwell, Bill Indoe, Sara McLeod, Terry O'Reilly Weil Gotshal & Manges, New York, Kenneth Heitner, Scott Sontag 25/05/01 merger £28 billion ($39.9 billion) Halifax Bank of Scotland n/a Herbert Smith, London, Bradley Phillips, Nikol Davies Linklaters & Alliance, London, Tom Scott n/a 21/05/01 joint venture EUR4.5 billion ($3.9 billion) n/a n/a Matra BAe Dynamics, Alenia Marconi Systems n/a n/a BAe Systems, Linklaters & Alliance, London, Ian Bowler, Dominic Winter, Elliot Weston; KPMG, London, Caroline Austin, Alex Priestley. EADS, Clifford Chance, London, David Harkness, Alice Gamble. Alenia Marconi Systems, Ashurst Morris Crisp, London Richard Palmer, Kate Eveleigh 11/05/01 global offering $1.8 billion Merrill Lynch, UBS Warburg SunAmerica Life Insurance Company GIC-backed notes and auction market equity securities AIG SunAmerica Global Financing n/a Davis Polk & Wardwell, New York, Po Sit, Michael Farber, Roy Caner O'Melveny & Myers, Los Angeles, Dean Weiner 09/05/01 rights issue £5.9 billion ($8.4 billion) n/a BT (British Telecommunications) n/a Linklaters & Alliance, London, Tom Scott, Mark Kingstone, Stephen Pevsner, Lynne Walkington; Shearman & Sterling, London, Bernie Pistillo; In-house, John Clark, Simon Coward n/a n/a 08/05/01 acquisition $408 million Cypress Group, US, Carlyle Group, US, holding company MedPointe Capital Partners Carter-Wallace Inc, Pharmaceutical division n/a Sullivan & Cromwell, New York, Ron Creamer, John Sweet Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, New York, Charles Rappaport, Adam Rosenzweig n/a 08/05/01 acquisition $739 million Church & Dwight, US, Kelso & Co, US, holding company Armkel Llc consumer brands of Carter-Wallace Inc n/a Sullivan & Cromwell, New York, Ron Creamer, John Sweet Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, Dallas, Jeff Trinklein, Misty Burns; Skadden Arps, Slate Meagher & Flom n/a 07/05/01 acquisition $6 billion Valero Energy Corporation Ultramar Diamond Shamrock n/a Jones Day Reavis & Pogue, Cleveland, Carl Jenks; Washington, Candace Ridgway; Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, New York, Jared Rusman 04/05/01 demutualization and flotation £4.2 billion ($5.99 billion) n/a Friends Provident Friends Provident plc Herbert Smith, London, Ross Fraser, Howard Murray, Zoe Brown; PricewaterhouseCoopers, London, Lindsay J'afari-pak, Peter Hoye n/a n/a 03/05/01 acquisition £4.8 billion ($6.8 billion) Vodafone Group Plc BT interests in Japan Telecom, J-Phone, Airtel BT Bird & Bird, London, Richard Ward; BT in-house, London, John Clark, Simon Coward Linklaters & Alliance, London, Andrew Beverley, David Blumenthal; Sullivan & Cromwell 30/04/01 acquisition $1 billion Maxtor Corp Quantum HDD Quantum Corp Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Palo Alto, Ronald Roth Gray Cary, Palo Alto, Dave Plewa 25/04/01 security offering £1.2 billion ($1.7 billion) n/a equity and debt securities in Cazenove n/a Slaughter and May, London, Howard Nowlan n/a n/a 24/04/01 acquisition £150 million ($214 million) Siemens Mannesmann UK Vodafone In-house, Klaus-Peter Husgen; KPMG, Anneli Collins In-house, Regine Nowack, Stephen Beckett; Norton Rose, London, Christopher Norfolk, Rupert Shires 11/04/01 acquisition £130 million ($185 million) Wilson Connolly Holdings plc Wainhomes n/a KPMG Liverpool/Manchester, Malcolm Edge; McGreggor Donald KPMG, London, Margaret Stephens, Gary Jones; Wragge & Co, London, Jeremy Millington 05/04/01 acquisition $1.5 billion Suiza Foods Corp Dean Food Co n/a Kirkland & Ellis, Chicago, Keith Villmow Hughes & Luce, Dallas, Ronald Kerridge; 04/04/01 acquisition £810 million ($1.15 billion) Bass Plc Posthouse Hotel chain Compass Group Freshfields, London, Tim Crossley, Francis Sandison Linklaters & Alliance, London, Charles Hellier, Kathryn Farthing