The revision of this Decree was recently adopted and is expected to enter into force on 1 July 2012.
The most significant change is the introduction of a "put up or shut up" provision: a target company may request the AFM to impose a six-week deadline on a potential bidder for either announcing a public bid or indicating that there is no intention to announce or make a public bid. If the potential bidder makes no announcement or states that no public bid will be made, it will be prohibited from announcing or making a voluntary public bid during for a respective nine and six month period. The revised decree sets out how disclosure of inside information and the decree are interconnected. In addition, the revised decree abolishes the requirement that the bid price may be increased only once. As a general rule, the bidder will be allowed to increase the price an unlimited number of times.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
