Search results for

ICI is to sell Crosfield, its worldwide silicas and catalysts business, to WR Grace and Company for $455 million.

US banks Banc One and First Chicago NBD have agreed to a merger valued at $72 billion.

British Gas has completed the sale of its Pipeline Integrity International business to companies formed by Mercury Asset Management Private Equity for £90 million ($147 million). Pipeline Integrity International provides high resolution inspection and maintenance services for oil, gas and chemical pipelines. It works in more than 30 companies.

Citicorp and Travelers Group are to merge in a transaction worth $166 billion, which will create the world's largest financial services company. The new company will be called Citigroup Inc. The deal calls for Citicorp shareholders to exchange each of their shares for 2.5 shares of Citigroup in a tax-free exchange. Travelers shareholders will retain their existing shares. The shareholders of each company will own 50% of the combined enterprise.

Bowater, the US paper products group, has offered $3.5 billion to buy Avenor, the Canadian forest products manufacturer.

Since Norway was last covered in International Tax Review (see International Tax Review March 1998, pg 48), an interesting amendment has been made to the statutory legislation in the field of international taxation.

Spanish tax legislation provides for various territorially-based special tax regimes, which in practice produce variations in the Spanish general tax regime. These special tax regimes, whose origins lie in historical considerations recognized and protected by the Spanish Constitution, specifically apply in the Basque Country's Ancient Territories (ie Alava, Guipúzcoa and Vizcaya) and in the Navarre Autonomous Community.

The US Internal Revenue Code section 6031(e) exempts foreign partnerships that have no income from US sources, or are effectively connected with a US trade or business, from filing a partnership tax return even if they have US partners. This little-noticed provision of the Taxpayer Relief Act 1997 (TRA 1997) was intended to bring to an end years of uncertainty about the US filing obligations of foreign partnerships. Proposed regulations issued on January 23 1998 expand the filing exemption and provide other filing reliefs to foreign partnerships.

In late 1997, the tax authorities released a new directive clarifying their views on the value-added tax (VAT) treatment of telecommunications and tele-services. As expected, the directive provides that tele-services are not identical to telecoms services, and hence are potentially subject to different VAT treatment.

Import exemptions relating to customs duty and value-added tax (VAT) were reintroduced on January 1 1998, following their abolition in April 1996. However, only a relatively small group of foreign investors will now qualify for the exemptions.