Teams straying into Takeovers Panel territory may need to
develop new skills following recent changes.
The changes will impact commercial principals, in-house counsel
and their corporate advisers when they are before the Panel or
contemplating dealings that may spark Panel applications, such as
hostile takeovers, potential associations or other contentious
corporate control actions.
Panel teams must now be prepared for 'conferences',
which are face-to-face inquisitions by the Panel of the key
commercial actors.
Conferences bring a new set of challenges for Panel teams. In
contrast to the usual Panel process of lawyer-driven written
submissions, commercial principals will be required to respond to
Panel interrogation in person. This may expose them to tests of
their credibility, understanding of issues and consistency of
submissions.
