C-2 symmetric chelating ligands can be used to prepare homochiral lanthanide complexes which act as enantioselective reagents and catalysts for synthetically important reactions. [LnCl(3)(pybox)(2)] (pybox is 2,6-bis(substituted-2-oxazolin-2-yl)pyridine) catalyse the enantioselective silylcyanation of aldehydes. [Li(3)Ln(binol)(3)] (H(2)binol is binaphthol) are reagents for the enantioselective addition of MeLi to aldehydes. [La(OTf)(3)(Pr-i-pybox)(2)] and [Li(THF)(2)](2)[Li(Et2O)][Yb(R-binol)(3)] have been characterised by single crystal X-ray diffraction. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.