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.''

According to the amended regulation 29A, SEBI board may, on an application made by a target company, relax any or more of the provisions of the chapter, subject to such conditions as it may deem fit, if it is satisfied that:

(a) the central government or state government or any other regulatory authority has removed the board of directors of the target company and has appointed other persons to hold office as directors thereof under any law for the time being in force for orderly conduct of the affairs of the target company;

(b) such directors have devised a plan which provides for transparent, open, and competitive process for continued operation of the target company in the interests of all stakeholders in the target company and such plan does not further the interests of any particular acquirer;

(c) the conditions and requirements of the competitive process are reasonable and fair;

(d) the process provides for details, including the time when the public offer would be made, completed and the manner in which the change in control would be effected;

(e) the provisions of this chapter are likely to act as impediment to implementation of the plan of the target company and relaxation from one or more of such provisions is in public interest, the interest of investors and the securities market.''