TP04/086
The Takeovers Panel announced today that it has published a revised version of its Guidance Note on Unacceptable Circumstances.
Guidance Note 1 discusses when the Takeovers Panel may make a declaration of unacceptable circumstances under section 657A of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) and some of the matters which the Panel will take into account in making such a declaration. In particular it provides guidance on the circumstances the Panel may consider unacceptable.
The Panel took care to point out that each matter before it is decided on the circumstances of each particular case, and that although the Panel’s Guidance Notes are very good guidance, they will not be binding in 100% of cases.
The Panel advised that it has not published the Guidance Note in a draft form for comment as it considers that the changes that it has made are not substantive and involve no change of policy. Rather the changes are part of the Panel’s planned process of reviewing the currency and consistency of its Guidance Notes. The types of changes which the Panel has made include adding recent matters as examples of the policy issues discussed. The Panel noted that it had reissued Guidance Notes 2 to 6 and 8 to 10 in July this year. Similarly, the Panel considered that those Guidance Notes had received merely updating rather than substantive change and did not publish them as drafts for comment.
While it has not published the document as a draft, the Panel advised that it would, as always, be interested to receive comments on the revised version of Guidance Note 01.
A copy of the revised Guidance Note 01 is available on the Panel’s website: Guidance.
Nigel Morris
Director, Takeovers Panel
Level 47 Nauru House, 80 Collins Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
Ph: +61 3 9655 3501
nigel.morris@takeovers.gov.au