New Clause 354

Part of Company Law Reform Bill [Lords] – in a Public Bill Committee at 1:45 pm on 20 July 2006.

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Cases where offer treated as being on same terms

‘(1) The condition in section (Meaning of “takeover offer”)(3) (terms of offer to be the same for all shares or all shares of particular classes) is treated as satisfied where subsection (2) or (3) below applies.

(2) This subsection applies where—

(a) shares carry an entitlement to a particular dividend which other shares of the same class, by reason of being allotted later, do not carry,

(b) there is a difference in the value of consideration offered for the shares allotted earlier as against that offered for those allotted later,

(c) that difference merely reflects the difference in entitlement to the dividend, and

(d) the condition in section (Meaning of “takeover offer”)(3) would be satisfied but for that difference.

(3) This subsection applies where—

(a) the law of a country or territory outside the United Kingdom—

(i) precludes an offer of consideration in the form, or any of the forms, specified in the terms of the offer (“the specified form”), or

(ii) precludes it except after compliance by the offeror with conditions with which he is unable to comply or which he regards as unduly onerous,

(b) the persons to whom an offer of consideration in the specified form is precluded are able to receive consideration in another form that is of substantially equivalent value, and

(c) the condition in section (Meaning of “takeover offer”)(3) would be satisfied but for the fact that an offer of consideration in the specified form to those persons is precluded.’.—[Margaret Hodge.]