Takeovers Panel Reports on Achieving Its Strategic Goals

Takeovers Panel Reports on Achieving Its Strategic Goals in Its 2013 Annual Report

The 2013 Annual Report of the Takeovers Panel has just been published, having been tabled in Parliament.

The Panel reports on a year of variable corporate activity, with the transactions that required monitoring tending to come in clusters. This provided opportunities for the Panel to switch to a public education focus and to law reform proposals whenever its monitoring and enforcement work allowed.

The Panel monitored 20 transactions regulated by the Takeovers Code, including the high-profile takeover of Fisher & Paykel Appliances Holdings Limited. This compares with 22 Code-regulated transactions being monitored over the 2012 year. One enforcement hearing was held by the Panel, relating to an unlisted company, Radius Properties Limited. The last time the Panel held an enforcement hearing was about three years ago.

David Jones, Chairman of the Takeovers Panel, said today: “Whether the market is busy or quiet, enforcing the Takeovers Code is always the Panel’s highest priority. Since the global financial crisis the takeovers market has been fairly quiet, but the Panel and its staff used this time to push on with the Panel’s law reform goals.”

The final stage of a lengthy technical review of the Takeovers Code was completed, with a raft of Code amendments coming into force on 1 June 2013. The Panel also recommended changes for disclosures about derivatives, and these changes are being brought into effect through the regulations under the Financial Markets Conduct Act.

The Panel’s Chief Executive, Margaret Bearsley, pointed out the very positive feedback the Panel has received over the year from its stakeholders. The Panel runs an on-line survey and it gets a high response rate (71% of those surveyed over the year responded). One hundred percent of the respondents said they were satisfied overall with the Panel’s 2 processes and with its professionalism.

“The Panel is grateful to the stakeholders who take the time to provide feedback. It’s one of the forums that keeps us in touch with the people we deal with. They have told us we are doing a good job, and we will do our best to maintain that performance,” Ms Bearsley said.

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