[Deergha Meena is a fourth year student at NALSAR University of Law] India’s framework for monitoring post-acquisition control remains largely reactive, leaving a critical gap in tracking the evolution of control after transactions close. Although the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (SEBI’s) Takeover Regulations and SEBI’s Listing and Disclosure Requirements...
Restricting Carry-Forward of Losses: Analysing Reforms to the Income Tax Act
[Megha Porwal and Manav Pamnani are 3rd year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) students at the NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad] The Union Budget presented on 1 February 2025 marks a significant development in the jurisprudence pertaining to direct taxes in India. This is because it introduces a substantial amendment to sections 72a and 72AA of the Income...
SAT’s Order in Pegasus: Dispensing with Valuations in Indirect Acquisitions?
[Shalin Ghosh is a 3rd year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) student at Maharashtra National Law University, Mumbai] Indirect acquisitions involve an acquirer obtaining control in the target company by taking over an intermediary entity which already holds a controlling stake in the target. This transaction structure does not result in any change in the target’s public shareholding. However, such acquisitions...
NCLT’s Shift: A Deeper Dive into Merger Schemes and Public Interest
[Arjim Jain and Shruti Asati are 4th Year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) students at National Law University, Odisha] In a ruling in July, the National Company Law Tribunal (‘NCLT/Tribunal’) rejected a proposed merger scheme involving three interconnected entities, citing concerns that the scheme was not in the public interest. Unlike other cases where the NCLT typically focused on ensuring compliance with...
Whether a “Sale of Shares” Amounts to a “Sale of an Undertaking”: Has the Conundrum Been Resolved?
[Bharat Vasani is Senior Advisor – Corporate Laws and Varun Kannan an Associate in the General Corporate Practice, both at the Mumbai office of Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas. An earlier version of this post was published on the Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas Blog] “What would constitute an ‘undertaking’ of a company” has been among the most hotly debated topics in the history of India’s company law regime...
Dodging Criminal Liability Through Mergers & Amalgamations
[Suraj Chaudhary and Ravishekhar Pandey are practising advocates at the Bombay High Court, and specialise in commercial disputes] Netflix’s Railway Men this November has refreshed the public memory of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy in 1984. In March this year, given its limited curative jurisdiction, the Supreme Court had no choice but to reject the application for enhancement of compensation to the...
Critiquing SEBI’s Narrow Interpretation of the Inter-Se Transfer Exemption
[Simran Sharma is a fourth year B.A.,LL.B (Trade and Investment Law Hons.) student at National Law University, Jodhpur} The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) provided informal guidance in June this year on the interpretation of the “inter se transfer exemption” under the SEBI (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations, 2011 (“Takeover Code”). This post aims to...
Capital Reduction: Tax Conundrums
[Sumit Bansal (Partner), Shivani Chhabra (Associate) and Taranjeet Singh (Associate) are with S&R Associates, Advocates] Capital reduction refers to the technique of reducing a company’s share capital in any form. It is a mechanism usually adopted by companies for re-modelling their capital structure, amongst other means (viz., buy-back of shares and redemption of preference share capital)...
A Bank’s Post-Merger Liability for Pre-Merger Crimes
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court in Religare Finvest Limited v. State of NCT of Delhi (2023INSC819) considered the question whether the transferee bank in a merger can be fastened with corporate criminal liability for offences committed by the officials of the transferor bank prior to a merger of the two entities. The Court answered in the negative given the specific facts and circumstances...
Decoding “Ordinary Course of Business” in M&A Transactions
[Rajat Sethi is a Partner and Oorja Chari an Associate at S&R Associates] In common parlance, transactions entered in the “ordinary course of business” include transactions carried out in the day-to-day course of business to further the company’s business, in line with its charter documents. Black’s Law Dictionary defines ordinary course of business as “normal routine in managing trade or...
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