Antitrust enforcement agencies have recently asserted that private equity firms deserve heightened scrutiny when engaging in corporate transactions. However, in the recent Change Healthcare decision, the Court found that a proposed divestiture to a private equity sponsor would adequately preserve competition. Rejecting the DOJ’s arguments to the contrary, the Court found that the sponsor’s “incentives
Private Equity
U.S. Treasury Adopts Final Corporate Beneficial Ownership Reporting Rule
Last week, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the Department of the Treasury adopted a final rule (the “Final Rule”) to implement the beneficial ownership reporting requirements of the Corporate Transparency Act, part of the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020.
This legislation requires a range of U.S. legal entities, and non-U.S. legal entities registered to…
UK Public M&A Round-Up – Winter 2021/2022
Welcome to the Winter edition of our UK Public M&A Round-up.
This issue includes:
We hope you find the topics in this issue to be of interest and invite you to contact the articles’ authors or your normal Cleary contact if you have any…
Germany Strengthens Corporate Social Responsibility in Supply Chains
With effect as from January 1, 2023, the German Supply Chain Act dated July 16, 2021 (Gesetz über die unternehmerischen Sorgfaltspflichten in Lieferketten – Lieferkettensorgfaltspflichtengesetz) will enter into force.
Undertakings of a particular size shall take responsibility for, and implement diligence standards with respect to, human rights-related and environmental risks in supply chains. An undertaking which is subject to the German Supply Chain Act, but not in compliance with the requirements stipulated thereunder, may face significant sanctions.
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UK Public M&A Round-Up – Autumn 2021
Welcome to the Autumn edition of our UK Public M&A Round-up.
This issue includes:
- UK Public M&A Snapshot Q3 2021: Key themes over the past quarter.
- Rollovers in UK Public M&A Transactions: Why have rollovers been rising up the agenda?
- How Target Shareholders are Attacking Bids on Valuation Grounds: Why is this becoming more common
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UK Public M&A Round-up
Welcome to our UK Public M&A round-up. Our round-up will feature select topics that highlight notable themes, trends and developments in the UK public M&A space.
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UK Bids: Take-Private Boom Sees Negotiating Power Shift from Target Boards to Shareholders
As we have covered previously, one of the most noticeable trends that has emerged in the current boom in UK public M&A activity[1] is the heightened level of target shareholder opposition to bids. This is manifesting itself in a number of ways, including through increased and novel “bumpitrage”[2] campaigns as well as through institutional investors becoming more vocal in expressing their discontent at proposed bids. There appears to be a general feeling among a number of the largest UK institutional investors that private equity are acquiring UK public companies “too cheaply”.
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UK Bids: Why the ‘Reopening Trade’ May Result in a Flurry of Activity Particularly for Domestically Focused FTSE 250 Companies
In the past week, two further potential bids were announced in relation to FTSE 250 companies – KKR’s potential bid for John Laing and Blackstone’s potential bid for St Modwen. This follows a number of recent bids for UK listed companies, many of which were launched following the announcement in November 2020 by Pfizer and…
Delaware Court Orders Up Prevention Doctrine to Require Reluctant Buyer to Close
In Snow Phipps v. KCAKE Acquisition, the Delaware Court of Chancery ordered the buyer (Kohlberg) to close on its $550 million agreement to purchase DecoPac, a cake decorations supplier. In doing so, the court easily rejected the buyer’s claims that the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a material adverse effect (“MAE”) and that the steps…
ARPA to Expand 162(m) Limits on Executive Compensation
On March 11, 2021, President Biden signed into law the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (the “ARPA”), the much-debated $1.9 trillion COVID-19 stimulus legislation. The ARPA includes a provision, added by Senate amendment on March 6, 2021, which will further limit the deductibility of amounts deemed to be “excessive employee remuneration” under…