CHAPTER TWO
Role of regulation
In all developed economies and most developing economies M&A is a regulated activity. Additionally, most medium to large deals are international in nature, thus adding the complication of multiple regulatory jurisdictions impacting on the one M&A transition. Regulation in this area takes account of both the conduct of M&A and whether or not a specific deal should be allowed. The interplay of different regulatory jurisdictions and the move toward more rigorous regulation make this a very dynamic and complex area. Whilst ultimately, professional legal advice is required, this section provides grounding in some of the key challenges and constraints that need to be addressed. The dynamism of the field comes from continuous change to the legal framework and its interpretation, reflecting changes in priority over economic development, politics, social and national concerns. Recently, for example, India changed the threshold of share ownership at which a company is required to make a bid for all the equity of a company.
The complexity of the regulatory environment comes from a number of sources. The core to this complexity is the complexity of the legal framework in each country and the interaction between the different legal frameworks that impact on the execution of cross-border deals and, in the case of the European Union, the interaction that can sometimes occur between the pan-national European Commission and national regulators. Additionally, as we ...
