On 14 July 2015, the Code Committee of the Takeover Panel published PCP 2015/3 outlining its proposals to add three new presumptions to the definition of 'acting in concert' in the Takeover Code. These presumptions would be introduced to the already existing six categories of persons who will be presumed to be acting in concert with other persons in the same category. The proposed presumptions are for:
- a person, the person's close relatives, and the related trusts of any of them, all with each other;
- the close relatives of a founder of a company to which the Takeover Code applies, their close relatives, and the related trusts of any of them, all with each other; and
- shareholders of a private company who sell their shares in that company in consideration for the issue of new shares in a company to which the Takeover Code applies, or who, following the re-registration of that company as a public company in connection with an IPO or otherwise, become shareholders in a company to which the Takeover Code applies.
The addition of these presumptions serves to clarify what has already been common practice. While the panel expected practitioners to be aware that other categories of persons which were not expressly covered in the presumptions of the definition would fall within it, the panel has proposed to codify it.
The consultation paper is available here:
http://www.thetakeoverpanel.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/PCP201503.pdf
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