Bloomberg has the latest on the financing of Emdeon's pending $3 billion buyout. Private equity titan Blackstone has told investors it has set the interest rate on a $1.2 billion term loan at the low end of its previous range. That move, Bloomberg says, will save the Nashville-based health care transaction intermediary some $3 million in interest per year.

Separately, Emdeon on Friday sold $375 million of debt yielding 11 percent in a private placement.

Law firm Hall, Booth, Smith & Slover P.C., has opened its first overseas office in the Republic of Georgia, the breakaway nation-state formerly governed by the U.S.S.R.

One reason Hall Booth Smith & Slover went to the other side of the world to set up a law office, was the potential for financing import/export deals previously untapped. The firm's stated goal is to bridge the gap between U.S.-based companies wanting to work in the republic and Republic of Georgia-based companies wanting to work with clients in this country, particularly through the export trade.

Talks are ongoing between the law firm and the republic to arrange loan finance guarantees through the Washington,D.C.-based U.S. Export/Import bank. The bank was originally established in the 1930s to provide, ironically, loans for the U.S.S.R. Since that time, the bank has broadened its effort and now aids U.S.-based companies export to international clients. In 2010 the U.S. Export/Import bank closed $24.5 billion in loans.

Hall Booth is an Atlanta-based firm with over 100 attorneys, ten of whom work in the Nashville office.