[Poojita Saxena is a 4th year law student at the National Law Institute University, Bhopal] One of India’s leading renewable energy companies, ReNew Power, recently announced the execution of a definitive business combination agreement with RMG Acquisition Corporation II. The USD 8-billion transaction enables the combined power generation company to get listed on NASDAQ by the second quarter of...
Promoter-Friendly Amendments to the SEBI Takeover Regulations
Cash-starved companies are presently considering raising funds through various means during the economic downturn. When it comes to equity funding, the natural option would be to rely on their promoters to infuse more capital. Towards this end, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on 16 June 2020 issued amendments to the SEBI (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers)...
Competition Regulatory Framework Governing Hostile Takeovers in India
[Rajat Maloo is a III year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) student at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore] In 2019, the L&T-Mindtree hostile takeover battle revitalised the dialogue on the market for corporate control in India, which has until date witnessed only a few hostile takeovers. Apart from the SEBI (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations, 2011 (‘Takeover...
The Impact of COVID-19 on M&A Due Diligence: The Way Forward
[Anushka Mehul Shah is a 2nd year student in the 3-year L.L.B course at the Government Law College, Mumbai] The outbreak of COVID-19 has had damaging ripple effects on mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transactions around the globe. This year, global merger activity is at $762.6 billion so far, which is not only the lowest year-to-date amount for deal making since 2013, but it also down by 33%...
COVID-19: A Material Adverse Change?
[Gaurang Mansinghka is a 4th year student at the Government Law College, Mumbai] The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted human life across the globe. Stalled economies, dwindling stock valuations, supply chain disruptions and projections by various organisations indicating a gloomy economic future show that the economic contagion is spreading as fast as the virus itself. This post attempts to answer...
Covid-19: Return of the MAC
[Sridutt Mishra is a 4th year student and Apoorva Upadhyay a 3rd year student, both at the National Law University Odisha] The fear over the spread of Covid-19 has wreaked havoc on the global economy, with initial estimates suggesting an even worse impact than the 2008 Global Financial Crisis and the Great Depression. Central banks and securities regulators across countries such as India, the...
Covid 19: Consequences on Contractual Obligations
[Meenal Maheshwari is the lead transactional counsel at Essar Group] With the pandemic that has subsumed the world, a common question that corporates are dealing with is the impact of the coronavirus epidemic on already contracted obligations. The most relevant question raise is: at what point does Covid-19 pandemic allow a party to delay performance, not perform, renegotiate the existing terms...
Takeover of Unlisted Companies: A New Route
Squeeze out of minority shareholders of companies has been a controversial area. As a co-author and I had discussed, there are a number of methods by which squeeze outs can be effected in Indian companies. By way of a recent set of notification and rule-making efforts, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has just added another method that would be applicable to unlisted companies. Among the...
The Sun Pharma Orders: NCLT Confounds the Law on Cross-Border Demergers?
[Shinoj Koshy is a partner and Mayank Labh an associate at L&L Partners. The views expressed are personal and do not constitute legal advice. An earlier post on the topic is available here.] On 19 December 2019, the Ahmedabad bench of National Company Law Tribunal (“NCLT”) passed the order in which it rejected an application made by Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Limited (“Sun Pharma”) for a...
NCLT Finds Cross-Border Demergers Impermissible under the Companies Act
An important question arose before the National Company Law Tribunal (NLCT), Ahmedabad bench. Are only cross-border mergers and amalgamations permitted under section 234 of the Companies Act, 2013 (the “Act”), or does the provision also encompass cross-border demergers and other similar transactions? The NCLT answered that the scope of section 234 is narrow, and covers only cross-border mergers...
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