business interests in the run-up to the Chinese takeover of Hong Kong, where Jardine's operations are based, in 1997.

Nine years after moving its domicile from Hong Kong to Bermuda, a new law is going through the Parliamentary process in Bermuda which will bring the company under a statutory version of the London Takeover Code.

The law, which is an amendment to the Act which enabled Jardine to incorporate in Bermuda in 1984, will mean that Bermuda Monetary Authority will convene a panel if Jardine is subject to a takeover bid or makes one itself.

Jardine has long feared that after 1997 it could have its assets confiscated by the Chinese Government as happened in Shanghai after the communists' takeover of China in 1949.

Nearly two years ago, it unsuccessfully attempted to avoid Hong Kong's takeover code by moving its primary stock exchange listing to London.

Jardine Matheson Holdings director Mr. Ray Moore, who is also president of Jardine Matheson International Services Ltd., which is the part of the group which operates from Bermuda, said that this latest move was to be expected.

"It is merely a continuation of the process which was started in 1984 when we moved our legal domicile here and decided all the regulations should ultimately not be in Hong Kong,'' he said.

"It's not a sensational bit of news. It's not made headlines in Honk Kong.

"When this regulation has been passed, and it's only been gazetted at the moment, there will be continued discussions about the time when the regulation in Hong Kong ceases and moves to London and Bermuda.''