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Corporate Restructuring- Corporate Law, Accounting and Tax Perspective

Resolution Division 

(resolution@vinodkothari.com)

Restructuring is the process of redesigning one or more aspects of a company, and is considered as a key driver of corporate existence. Depending upon the ultimate objective, a company may choose to restructure by several modes, viz. mergers, de-mergers, buy-backs and/ or other forms of internal reorganisation, or a combination of two or more such methods.

However, while drafting a restructuring plan, it is important to take into consideration several aspects viz. requirements under the Companies Act, SEBI Regulations, Competition Act, Stamp duty implications, Accounting methods (AS/ Ind-AS), and last but not the least, taxation provisions.

In this presentation, we bring to you a compilation of the various modes of restructuring and the applicable corporate law provisions, accounting standards and taxation provisions.

http://vinodkothari.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Corprorate-Restructuring-Corporate-Law-Accounting-Taxation-Perspective.pdf

Schemes of Arrangement under the Scanner

Listed Companies made subject to stricter scrutiny and multilevel approvals

-Megha Mittal

(mittal@vinodkothari.com)

With the objective of empowering the stock exchanges and streamlining the processing of draft schemes filed with the stock exchanges, the Securities and Exchange Board of India has issues a Circular dated 3rd November, 2011[1] (“Amendment Circular”) thereby amending the Circular dated March 10, 2017[2] (“March, 2017 Circular”) which lays down the framework for Schemes of Arrangement by listed entities and relaxation under Rule 19(7) of the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Rules, 1957.

The Amendment Circular shall be effective for scheme submitted to the Stock Exchange after 17th November, 2020 and for those companies which are either listed, seeking to be listed or awaiting trading approval after 3rd November, 2020.

Schemes of Arrangement is unarguably a material event for the listed company, and as such, optimum transparency, disclosure by the company, coupled with stringent checks by the Committees, viz Audit Committee and Committee of Independent Directors, becomes a very crucial factor for decision making by the shareholders.

The Amendment Circular primarily aims at ensuring that the recognized stock exchanges refer draft  schemes  to  SEBI  only  upon  being fully convinced that the listed entity is in compliance with SEBI Act, Rules, Regulations and circulars issued thereunder. While the amendments introduced, bring to light the tenet of the regulatory bodies to ensure higher levels of transparency and disclosures with respect to the proposed schemes, there also seems to be an underlying tone of stress and responsibility that has been imposed on the Audit Committee and Independent Directors to assess the viability of the proposed Schemes.

In this article, the author has given a detailed comparison of the provisions, before and after the Amendment Circular, along with comments on the same.

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Cross Border Mergers

As the global economy becomes more and more intertwined, the trend of cross border mergers and amalgamations have accelerated..

In the presentation below, we discuss the concept of Cross border mergers in light of the extant provisions, and its practical aspects- Click here

An audio presentation of the same is also available at- https://youtu.be/jHVIajr2q00