Blog Posts
-
Recent Restrictions on Short Selling in the US: Comparing the Indian Position
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] The steep fall in prices of several US investment banks and financial institutions, such as Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been attributed to false rumours leading to panic selling, which has been further exacerbated by “naked” short selling. This has necessitated emergency action on the part of the…
-
The Efficacy of Windfall Profits Tax
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] In an earlier post, we had discussed how the recent spike in oil prices has raised important issues relating to corporate governance in listed public sector companies. Now, this steep oil price rise has rekindled the debate on the need to impose a windfall profits tax on private oil companies. The…
-
The True Nature of a Stock Swap
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] A stock swap is a transaction where an acquirer acquires shares of another company and, instead of paying cash for such acquisition, discharges consideration by issuance of its own shares. Business World has surveyed experts on the question as to whether a stock swap amounts to a “sale”. The response is…
-
Competition Commission & Global Mergers
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] There has been a coordinated and consistent move by industry to ensure that merger regulations that have been proposed by the Competition Commission do not cover global mergers whose implications in India are not substantial. We have discussed this issue in the past on this blog (here, here and here). In…
-
Vodafone Income Tax Case
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] The acquisition of shares in Hutch Essar by Vodafone from Hutchison in a multi-billion dollar M&A deal last year has resulted in a dispute on the taxability of capital gains on the transaction. This dispute is currently pending before the Bombay High Court, with a decision being awaited. The court’s verdict…
-
Security for External Commercial Borrowings: Liberalised Regime
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced a series of measures to liberalise the regime for Indian borrowers to create security in favour of lenders in case of external commercial borrowings (ECBs). Now, borrowers are only required to obtain the ‘no-objection’ from the authorized dealers (AD) rather than to obtain…
-
Management Buyouts (MBOs): Possibilities and Challenges
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] Earlier this week, The Hindu Business Line carried a detailed column on various business and financial aspects of management buyouts (MBOs), particularly as such deals are being witnessed (albeit infrequently) in India. Simply stated, management buyouts involve the acquisition of a division of a company or the shares in a company,…
-
Corporate Governance in Banks
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] With the recent credit crisis weakening the financial position of several banks world-over, the question that is being repeatedly posed is whether the boards of directors of these banks could have foreseen the oncoming crisis or whether they should have taken steps to forestall a slide in their financial position. Fingers…
-
Bulk Deals and Order Matching
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] The availability of income tax exemptions (on long term capital gains) for share transactions that are executed through stock exchanges have caused otherwise negotiated share sale and purchase deals to be implemented through the stock exchange mechanism. This would require parties to bear only the securities transaction tax (STT) at rates…
-
Website on Takeover Code
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] Acquisitions of shares or control of a publicly listed Indian company are governed by the provisions of the SEBI (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations, 1997 (a.k.a. the Takeover Code). Although this piece of regulation is only about a decade old, it has been tested several times in transactions and…