Australia: M&A/Private Equity

Australia's Parliament has passed critical amendments to the country's new merger regime, replacing automatic voiding of non-notified acquisitions with a court-supervised model and clarifying control exemptions for minority investments. The changes also introduce greater flexibility for stale clearances, though questions remain about whether further reforms are needed to address the regime's underlying complexity and conservative thresholds.

Australia's Parliament has passed significant amendments to the country's merger regime, less than a year after its introduction. The changes address practical concerns around mandatory merger notifications, providing greater flexibility for minority investments, reducing risks from inadvertent notification failures, and allowing extensions for delayed transactions. How will these refinements impact dealmakers navigating Australia's interventionist competition framework?

Restructuring and distressed transactions in Australia are being influenced by a number of key trends. These include but are not limited to the broader economic downturn; sector-specific challenges; access to capital; regulatory challenges; sustainability considerations; investment in technology; increased M&A activity; and continuing interest from private equity investors.

In Mobile Asset Holdings Ltd [2026] ATP 7, the Takeovers Panel considered a situation where the Board, directors of which represented 50%+ of the shareholdings in the company, put a resolution to shareholders for a constitutional amendment which would enable them to compel all shareholders to sell their shares (aka drag-along rights) without the usual guardrails. This blank cheque approval request was most likely going to be approved, given the voting majority who benefited from it were themselves voting, but for the successful application to the Takeovers Panel of an individual applicant.

Two-tiered offers remain a legitimate and important tool for bidders, but must be structured to operate effectively in all circumstances, including where the relevant acceptance threshold is to be tested at the end of the offer period.

The first half of calendar year 2026 represented a cautious six months for IPOs on ASX, amidst the background of geopolitical tensions and significant divergence between sectors.

ASIC transaction reporting requires entities to submit an expanded set of data fields, including Item 49: Price Unit of Measure. This field specifies what unit a reported price refers to, drawn from ISO 20022 standardised codes, and must align with quantity measures to ensure internal consistency. Understanding when to populate this field and selecting the correct unit code are critical to avoiding common reporting errors.

Break fees are a well-established feature of the Australian mergers and acquisitions (M&A) landscape involving an entity which is subject to Chapter 6 of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth)...

The quote sometimes attributed to Vladimir Lenin that “there are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen” seems particularly appropriate in relation to the 2026 Federal Budget.