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New Decaux has announced a £475 million ($770 million) bid for UK billboard and bus shelter advertising company, More. New Decaux is advised by Linklaters in London and Paris. Tax partners Martin Lynchehan and Neal Todd are providing tax advice.

Tax advisers thrive in periods of change. Financial instability in Asia has made more work for advisers, but brought greater pressure too. Clients demand lower fees and rivals try to poach staff. Phillippa Cannon and Adrian Preston discuss tactics with the winners and their clients

The creation of a Transfer Pricing Coordination Group by the Netherlands Ministry of Finance has been welcomed by tax advisers. The group will be responsible for streamlining the approach of the Dutch tax authorities to new transfer pricing questions, and for ensuring a consistent interpretation of the rules by individual tax inspectors. The group will provide assistance on issues dating from March 1 1998. It will serve as a reference point for the Revenue Service units, prepare policy in some instances and contribute to the creation of an international transfer pricing policy. In the past, transfer pricing rules in the Netherlands have been subject to interpretation by individual tax inspectors, which has led to uneven application.

Schroder Ventures, a private equity provider, is to buy Leica Microsystems, part of the Leica Holdings group, in a deal valued at $500 million. Leica Microsystems is a world leader in the manufacture of microscopes and other related equipment for the healthcare, research and semi-conductor industries.

Carnival Corporation of Miami, together with a group of Norwegian investors led by Christiania Markets, is to buy the Cunard cruise ship line from the Norwegian Kvaerner Group for $500 million. The Cunard line operates five cruise ships. Carnival has also reached an agreement with Kvaerner-Masa Yards to develop and design a new class of ships for Cunard.

German publisher Bertelsmann is to acquire Random House from New York publishing house Advance Publications, for an undisclosed sum believed to be around $2 billion.

Bacardi-Martini has bought the Dewars Scotch Whisky and Bombay Gin brands from Diageo in a £1.1 billion ($1.8 billion) deal. Diageo's sale of the brands was required by the US and EU regulatory authorities, when the company was created by the merger of Guinness and Grand Metropolitan in December 1997.

The Spanish Corporate Income Tax Law (Law 43/1995 of December 27), in force since 1996, provides that charges for intercompany management services are deductible if, among other things, they are compulsory for the recipient company by virtue of a previous written contract.

The Second Chamber of the Netherlands parliament recently adopted a legislative proposal which, if enacted into law, will radically change the existing rules for taxation of employee stock option plans. The new rules will enter into force on the first day after the official publication of the new rules as approved by the First Chamber of Netherlands parliament in the Official Gazette of the Netherlands. The effective date will probably be somewhere in May or June 1998.

Approximately one year ago, the German government announced ambitious plans to broaden the tax base and cut tax rates to achieve net annual tax reductions exceeding Dm30 billion ($16.6 billion). This "great tax reform" has so far been caught up in political deadlock. Nevertheless, some significant legislation has emerged.