Takeover code amendments effective from 19 September 2011

Following the controversy and political interest prompted by the Kraft Foods Inc. takeover of Cadbury plc, the long awaited amendments to the City Code on Takeovers and Mergers (the "Code") are to become effective. The balance of power will shift significantly from bidder to target company as a result.

The amendments to the Code will become effective on 19 September 2011, following a response statement released by the Code Committee of the Takeover Panel on 21 July 2011.

The amendments are designed to (amongst other things) reduce the tactical advantage of "hostile" offerors (i.e. offerors whose offers are not from the outset recommended by the board of the target company) and redress the balance in favour of the target company.

The full text of the amendments to the Code is set out in Appendix B of the response statement, which is available here. A new edition of the Code incorporating the amendments will be published on 19 September 2011.

Read more about the key amendments

Lawyers William Belcher, Lee Bagshaw, Katie Bennett