The role of the tax authorities in challenging a scheme of arrangement under sections 391 to 394 of the Companies Act, 1956 has been called in question in the demerger of the passive infrastructure assets of various Vodafone Essar entities into Vodafone Essar Infrastructure Limited. This was an intra-group transaction as all companies enjoyed a wholly owned subsidiary relationship with one of the...
Notification of Merger Review Provisions under Competition Law
(The following post has been contributed by Rahul Singh, Assistant Professor, National Law School of India University, Bangalore (on leave) and Senior Associate, Trilegal) The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), Government of India has recently notified the provisions for regulation of combination (commonly known as “merger review provisions”) under the Competition Act, 2002. The Competition...
Poison Pill Lives on in Corporate America
(Mihir had earlier highlighted the importance of a recent Delaware Chancery Court decision in the Airgas case. We now have a post by Karan Singh Tyagi, who succinctly analyzes the impact of the decision under Delaware law and goes to the nub of the issue involving the role of the board of directors of a target that is the subject matter of a hostile bid. Karan is currently an associate at Gide...
Restrictions on Outbound Acquisitions
Although outbound acquisitions by Indian companies have increased significantly in recent years, there is a concern that domestic Indian laws governing the acquirers are yet to keep up to speed with developments in the business arena. Recognising this concern, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has submitted a memorandum to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Government of...
Outbound Acquisitions by Indian Companies
Professor Afra Afsharipour at the University of California, Davis, School of Law has posted an interesting paper “Rising Multinationals: Law and the Evolution of Outbound Acquisitions by Indian Companies”. Although several leading Indian companies have embarked on large overseas acquisitions, the law in this area has not been the subject-matter of serious academic study. To that extent, this...
Deal-making and a Changing Legal Regime
Vedanta’s takeover offer for Cairn Energy has raised some questions because it comes in the wake of impending changes to the SEBI Takeover Regulations that may make it potentially difficult for acquirers to structure transactions. Commentators have argued that the timing of the acquisition would help the acquirer take advantage of two beneficial provisions under the current regime (that may not...
NALSAR Student Law Review: New Issue
The latest issue of the NALSAR Student Law Review (which is available online) carries a number of articles that may be relevant to readers of this Blog. Here is a list of those: – Regulation and Responsibility of Credit Rating Agencies vis-a-vis the Current Economic Crisis- A Comparative Analysis – Rethinking the Linkages Between Foreign Direct Investment and Development: A Third...
Guidance on Due Diligence
M&A Law Prof Blog has a link to JeffreyWeiner’s Due Diligence in M&A Transactions: A Conceptual Framework which provides an overview of the due diligence process and its objectives in an M&A transaction. It will be a particularly useful reading for corporate lawyers who are starting out this season.
UK: Consultation Paper on Takeover Bids
While the SEBI Takeover Regulations in India are a subject-matter of detailed review, elsewhere in the U.K. there are proposals for amending certain aspects of the City Code on Takeovers and Mergers. These changes have been necessitated on account of the widespread debate that followed the takeover of Cadbury plc by Kraft Foods Inc. early this year. Towards that end, the Code Committee of the...
Proposal for Streamlining Stamp Duty on Mergers, etc.
The issue of applicability of stamp duty to a scheme of arrangement (merger/ amalgamation, demerger, reconstruction or otherwise) effected with the sanction of the High Court under sections 391 to 394 of the Companies Act, 1956 has always been a vexed one. As regards stamp duty legislation more generally, several states have enacted their own stamp duty laws while the remaining states are...
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