SEBI amends takeover rules for Satyam

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has announced amendments to the companies takeover rules and said the relaxations have been made to facilitate the smooth takeover of a target company in a particularly difficult circumstance.

The SEBI amendments to the takeover code, called the `Securities and Exchange Board of India (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) (Second Amendment) Regulations, 2009', published in the Gazatte of India, said it could now relax certain requirements on the specific request of a target company, depending on certain conditions being met.

The amendments follow a specific request by the new board of the fraud-hit Satyam Computer Services to the Securities and Exchange Board of India for exemption from the rules.

SEBI said the amendments to the regulations, made in exercise of the powers conferred by Section 30 of the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992 (15 of 1992), will come into force with immediate effect.

SEBI has amended regulation 25 of the Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers Regulations, 1997, wherein, after sub-regulation (2A) the following sub-regulation shall be inserted, namely, ''(2B) No public announcement for a competitive bid shall be made after an acquirer has already made the public announcement pursuant to relaxation granted by the Board in terms of regulation 29A.''

(ii) after regulation 29, following regulation shall be inserted, namely, ''Relaxation from the strict compliance of provisions of Chapter III in certain cases.''