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Latin American countries are taking steps towards greater regional tax co-ordination.

The agreement with Champion, a forest products company operating in the US, Brazil and Canada, went ahead following the withdrawal from the bidding of Finland's UPM-Kymmene. International Paper will purchase Champion for $75 per share in cash and stock in an offer valued at $7.3 billion, excluding $2.3 billion in net debt. The total purchase price would be paid with $50 in cash and $25 in stock.

The merger will provide the largest European stock market, with 53% of traded volume.

New Saudi tax reforms attempt to balance the need for alternative sources of income with the desire for more foreign investment in the private sector.

The Finance Act 1999 introduced, for the first time, specific provisions regarding taxation of employee stock options and other specified securities allotted by an employer to employees. Accordingly, the value of any specified security (employee stock options and certain other prescribed securities) allotted or transferred, directly or indirectly, by an employer free of cost or at a concessional rate, to an individual who is or has been in their employment, would constitute a taxable perquisite in the year of exercise/allotment. The value of the perquisite would be the difference between the fair market value and the cost of acquiring the specified securities. Further, the capital gains, if any, from a subsequent sale of shares arising on exercise of stock options, would be computed on the basis that their cost of acquisition is the fair market value on the date on which the stock option was exercised.

A question mark hangs over the future of UK stamp duty as part of the fall-out from the planned merger of the London and Frankfurt stock exchanges

Luminar turned to Andrew Sheach of CMS Cameron McKenna for tax advice. Northern Leisure consulted Ashurst Morris Crisp, where partners David Macfarlane, Nigel Stacey and Nigel Ward led the advisory team.

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The Davis Polk corporate team consisted of partners Charles Whitman III of the firm's New York office and Daniel Kelly Jr of the firm's Menlo Park office. Associates Ning Chiu, Judie Yu and Andrew Moffit in New York assisted. Partners William Weigel and Kathleen Ferrell, and associate Angelica Kwan provided tax advice.

Transfer pricing specialist, Michael Durst, has left PricewaterhouseCoopers to take up a partnership position with King & Spalding's Washington tax practice.