Sunday, July 31, 2011

Sebi's fine balancing act


The main objective of a code to govern takeovers of listed companies is to ensure that the interests of minority shareholders are protected. This was the key premise on which the Achuthan committee had based its recommendations . There, however, was afeeling that perhaps in a few areas the committee had tended to ignore market realities while trying to protect the minority shareholders.

Take for example the committee's original recommendation that an Open Offer should mandatorily be for 100% of the outstanding shares. The report pointed out that a partial open offer provision allowed for promoters to sell 100% of their holdings in a company. But if this sale triggered an open offer and it was partial, the other shareholders may not get an opportunity for a 100% exit. Though minority investorfriendly , this would have been too onerous and made any control stake acquisition very expensive.

See full Article.