Mergers and Acquisitions and Private Equity

The validity of put option clauses in contracts has been a subject of detailed scrutiny for the Indian government, for several years. The discourse surrounding put option clauses originated from Section 20 of the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956 ("Act")—which was subsequently omitted by the 1995 amendment to the Act. ......

In furtherance of its endeavour to review the regulatory norms on alternative investment funds (“AIFs”), the Securities and Exchange Board of India (“SEBI”), on February 3, 2023, issued five consultation papers containing such proposed alterations. Each such consultation paper discussed one proposed aspect of review—detailing the objective, background, issues for consideration, and proposal in relation thereto. ......

Inactive corporations without significant operations or assets may commonly be used to disguise business ownership from government authorities and the public at large. This is a tactic which may often be used for purposes that are spurious—including the evasion of taxes and the illegal siphoning off of money. ......

The corporate landscape of India has been conservative in its dealings, as outright battles for control are a rarity as far as the field of M&A goes. In a world where most mergers or acquisitions take place on a cordial note, with both sides as willing parties, a hostile takeover would not have been imaginable even after Swaraj Paul’s infamous attempt to takeover Delhi Cloth Mills from the Shri Ram family and Escorts Limited from the Nanda family. ......

The Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2022 (Bill No. 185 of 2022) (the "Bill") was introduced in the Lok Sabha on August 5, 2022. It seeks to, "carry out certain essential structural changes in the governing structure of the Competition Commission of India and changes to substantive provisions to address the needs for new age markets," and amend the Competition Act, 2002 (the "Act"), following the circulation of the draft Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2020 and the 2019 report issued by the Completion Law Review Committee. ......

The Government of Delhi aims to create business leaders and entrepreneurs and make Delhi the “start-up destination of the world”. With this aspiration at the helm, on May 5, 2022, the Delhi Cabinet approved and announced the “Delhi Start-up Policy” (“Policy”). The Policy aims to provide an enabling ecosystem for an innovation-based economy to help Delhi become a global innovation hub. ......

In recent years, the Government has facilitated ease of doing business in India, and amongst the flurry of measures aimed at projecting a globally 'open for business' image have been the amendments introduced to the Indian Stamp Act, 1899 ("Act"), through the Finance Act, 2019 ("Finance Act"). ......

Globally, private equity and venture capital funds have gained prominence as the dominant forms of investment in companies. A natural corollary of the above has been the evolution of innovative and complex mechanisms designed to protect such investment and gain maximum returns on the same. ...