Homogeneous catalysis used for fine chemical synthesis is a success story of both organometallic chemistry and organic synthesis. The wide scope for application of recently developed transition metal catalysts and ligands is illustrated by selected examples. Emphasis is given on efficient catalytic CC-coupling reactions, atom economic processes, and new stereoselective methods. Apart from the synthetic possibilities of homogeneous catalysts trends to overcome the basic problem of catalyst recycling are briefly reviewed. Here, two phase catalysis offers the most elegant solution. Recent achievements, e.g. the use of alternative two phase systems as well as the design of new ligands in this area are reported.