Amendments to the Administrative Rules for Public Tender Offers for Securities of Public Companies (Taiwan)

Jenny Chen

The Financial Supervisory Commission promulgated Articles, 14, 14-1 and 18 of the Administrative Rules for Public Tender Offers for Securities of Public Companies as amended (hereinafter, the “Rules”) via the Jin-Guan-Zheng-Jiao-1040051241 Directive of December 25, 2015. The amendments are highlighted below:

The amendments seek to address circumstances of hostile acquisition where the acquired company is not aware of such acquisition in advance. To provide an acquired company with more response time to explain its position to its shareholders, Article 14 of the Rules is revised to extend the response period from 7 days to 10 days. In addition, to allow more time for a review committee set up for purposes of such acquisition to consider the fairness and reasonableness of the acquisition terms and conditions and to provide recommendations to the company’s shareholders, Article 14-1 of the Rules is revised to extend the review period from 7 days to 10 days.

In addition, Article 18 of the Rules is amended to extend the public tender offer period from at least 10 days as originally required to at least 20 days.