Background Schemes of arrangement have been a useful method of implementing mergers and acquisitions in the Indian context. Historically under the Companies Act, 1956, schemes were supervised by the High Courts, but the Companies Act, 2013 conferred that jurisdiction upon the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). Under the regime set forth in the 1956 Act, the High Courts had adopted a largely...
Representations & Warranties Insurance in Mergers & Acquisitions
[Ajay Krishna is a 4th-year B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) Student at The National University of Advanced Legal Studies, Kochi] Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transactions have been steadily growing in India and some of the most highly negotiated provisions in these transactions are those of indemnities in case of breach of representations and warranties. Globally there has been a rapid growth in the use...
Merger of Public Sector Banks and Competition Concerns
[Kruthika Venkatesh is a 4th year B.B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) student at School of Law, Christ (Deemed-to-be) University in Bangalore] Background The media has reported that the Government of India is all set to ask the Reserve Bank of India (“RBI”) to prepare a list of candidates for merger among the 21 government controlled lenders with the primary agenda of overcoming bad debts. It all began two...
The Taxation Predicament of Slump Exchanges
[C. H. Anvita and Anirudh Venkatesh are 4thYear BA LLB (Hons.) students from School of Law, Christ (Deemed to be University, Bengaluru] Background The Mumbai bench of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (“ITAT”) has, in two sequential decisions in the months of January and May, 2018[1] (in which, the latter case reiterated the reasoning and decision of the former), reignited discussions on the...
NCLT Approves Amalgamation of LLP with Company: Did the Legislature Intend This?
[Ritika Bharti and Siddharth Subramanya Raj Urs are 4th year B.B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) students at School of Law, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru] Giving a new dimension to corporate restructuring, the Chennai Bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (“Tribunal”), in its first of a kind order dated 11 June 2018, laid down a fresh interpretation to the provisions pertaining to the...
CCI Proposes Amendments to the Combination Regulations To Disentangle the Minority Acquisition Exemption
[Ahkam Khan is a 3rdYear B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) student at Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University in Lucknow] India contemplates an ex ante merger control regime under the Competition Commission of India (Procedure in regard to the transaction of business relating to combinations) Regulations, 2011 (Combination Regulations). The process for filing of combinations with the Competition...
Analysing Some Insider Trading Implications For M&A Transactions
[Priya Garg is a 5th year student at West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (WBNUJS), Kolkata] Consequences of Creating the Due Diligence Exception to the Bar on the Communication of UPSI For the first time, under regulation 3 of the SEBI (Prohibition of Insider Trading) Regulations, 2015 (“PIT, 2015”), communication of unpublished price sensitive information (“UPSI”) per se has...
SEBI on “Control”: Financing vs. Acquisition
Background and Context Under the SEBI (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations, 2011 and its previous version of 1997, it is possible for a person to trigger the mandatory takeover offer requirement even without acquiring a single share in the company. This is because the person may be in “control” of the company as defined in the Takeover Regulations, which is determined...
Cross Border Mergers in India: RBI Notification and Some Implications
[Roshni Menon is a 5th year B.A., LL.B (Hons.) student at School of Law, Christ University in Bangalore] Upon tracing the history of cross border mergers in India, one finds that the erstwhile Companies Act, (“1956 Act”) did contain provisions relating to the subject, however limited in its application. This law permitted a merger between a foreign company and an Indian company where the...
Papers on Comparative Corporate Law and Governance in Asia
Hostile Takeover Regimes in Asia: A Comparative Approach, which I have co-authored with Wai Yee Wan. The abstract is as follows: “The market for corporate control (operating through hostile takeovers) acts as a key corporate governance mechanism to discipline corporate managers. However, the process and substance of regulating hostile takeovers differs remarkably among various jurisdictions...
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