Om emittenters hantering av insiderinformation vid due diligence-undersökningar
(2020) JURM02 20201Department of Law
Faculty of Law
- Abstract
- When a company wants to acquire a publicly traded company, it must do so by launching a takeover bid. The takeover is usually done in several steps, one of them being the due diligence. The due diligence is done to evaluate the attractivity of the target company as well as the risks of the takeover. What the due diligence investigates may depend on the key interests of the potential buyer, but can usually involve commercial, financial, and legal aspects of the target company. Although the board of the target company is not part of the deal itself, it is the board that decides what access the potential buyer gets to the company's information.
The due diligence may give the potential buyer access to information that is not available to... (More) - When a company wants to acquire a publicly traded company, it must do so by launching a takeover bid. The takeover is usually done in several steps, one of them being the due diligence. The due diligence is done to evaluate the attractivity of the target company as well as the risks of the takeover. What the due diligence investigates may depend on the key interests of the potential buyer, but can usually involve commercial, financial, and legal aspects of the target company. Although the board of the target company is not part of the deal itself, it is the board that decides what access the potential buyer gets to the company's information.
The due diligence may give the potential buyer access to information that is not available to the public. Under certain conditions, such information may constitute inside information. Inside information is defined in the Market Abuse Regulation (MAR). By definition, inside information is information of a specific nature, which has not been made public, that is linked to a company's shares and that if it were published would be likely to have a significant impact on the price of said shares.
The definition is not entirely straightforward and consists of several assessments that must be done on a case-by-case basis. However, if the information in question is to be regarded as inside information, then it must be made public as soon as possible. Under certain circumstances however, the issuer may delay such disclosure. These circumstances are reviewed in this paper. Furthermore, disclosure of inside information in other ways than to the public is unlawful, unless it is made in the normal exercise of an employment, a profession, or duties.
The main subject of this paper is to investigate the conditions under which the target company's board should give potential buyers access to inside information, and how that information should be handled during the remaining acquisition process.
The answer depends on a number of assessments that vary from case to case. As a starting point, the due diligence should be allowed only if it is in the interest of the shareholders to receive the bid, and the due diligence is a necessary condition for the bid to be submitted. Furthermore, inside information should only be provided to the buyer if it is a prerequisite for conducting the due diligence and thereby the submission of the bid.
If the target company provides inside information to the buyer, the target company is obligated to make that information public as soon as possible. However, that obligation differs from the above stated. This paper investigates the different obligations to make inside information public as soon as possible. In summary, inside information which is made available to the buyer must be made public at the earliest of the following:
- When the reason to delay the disclosure of the inside information is no longer valid, or
- When the bid is presented to the shareholder. (Less) - Abstract (Swedish)
- När ett bolag vill lägga ett offentligt uppköpserbjudande på ett noterat målbolag så är det vanligt att det köpande bolaget vill ha tillgång till viss information om målbolaget för att kunna bedöma målbolagets attraktivitet. En sådan undersökning kan omfatta finansiella, kommersiella och legala aspekter av målbolaget. Vad som undersöks beror till stor del av vad den potentiella köparen är intresserad av. Även om målbolagets styrelse inte är en del av själva affären så är det styrelsen som bestämmer vilken tillgång den potentiella köparen får till bolagets information.
När köparen granskar målbolaget så får köparen ofta tillgång till information som inte är allmänt känd. Under vissa förutsättningar kan sådan information utgöra... (More) - När ett bolag vill lägga ett offentligt uppköpserbjudande på ett noterat målbolag så är det vanligt att det köpande bolaget vill ha tillgång till viss information om målbolaget för att kunna bedöma målbolagets attraktivitet. En sådan undersökning kan omfatta finansiella, kommersiella och legala aspekter av målbolaget. Vad som undersöks beror till stor del av vad den potentiella köparen är intresserad av. Även om målbolagets styrelse inte är en del av själva affären så är det styrelsen som bestämmer vilken tillgång den potentiella köparen får till bolagets information.
När köparen granskar målbolaget så får köparen ofta tillgång till information som inte är allmänt känd. Under vissa förutsättningar kan sådan information utgöra insiderinformation. Vad som avses med insiderinformation regleras i EU:s marknadsmissbruksförordning. Uppsatsen syftar bland annat till att utreda förutsättningarna för att information ska utgöra insiderinformation. Enligt definitionen är insiderinformation icke offentliggjord information av specifik natur som har koppling till ett bolags aktier och som om den offentliggjordes skulle ha en väsentlig påverkan på priset på sagda aktier.
Definitionen är inte helt okomplicerad och utgörs av ett flertal bedömningar som ska bedömas från fall till fall. Klart är att om informationen utgör insiderinformation så ska den i normalfallet offentliggöras. Det finns dock undantag mot den offentliggörandeskyldigheten. Dessa granskas i uppsatsen. Förordningen stadgar också att det är otillåtet att röja insiderinformation för utomstående, det finns dock undantag mot förbudet.
Undantagen kallas för lagliga röjanden av insiderinformation och innebär att målbolagets styrelse får röja insiderinformation om det sker som ett normalt led i fullgörande av tjänst, verksamhet eller åligganden.
Uppsatsen syftar till att utreda under vilka förutsättningar målbolagets styrelse ska ge en potentiell köpare tillgång till insiderinformation, samt hur den informationen ska hanteras under den resterande uppköpsprocessen. Svaret beror dock på ett flertal bedömningar som varierar från fall till fall.
Som utgångspunkt ska en sådan undersökning som åsyftas enbart tillåtas om det ligger i de befintliga aktieägarnas intresse att själva få ta ställning till budet, och undersökningens genomförande är en förutsättning för att ett bud ska lämnas. Vidare ska insiderinformation endast lämnas till budgivaren om det är en förutsättning för undersökningens genomförande och därigenom budets lämnande.
När målbolaget lämnat insiderinformation till köparen inträder en skyldighet att offentliggöra informationen så snart som möjligt. Den skyldigheten skiljer sig från den ovan nämnda. Uppsatsen utreder därav även skillnaderna mellan de begreppets innebörd i de olika regelverken. Sammanfattningsvis ska insiderinformationen offentliggöras vid den tidigast inträffade tidpunkten av den tidpunkten då skälen för uppskjutandet av offentliggörandet inte längre gäller, och den tidpunkten då budet offentliggörs. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9010596
- author
- Nilsson, Jakob LU
- supervisor
- organization
- alternative title
- About issuers' handling of inside information during due diligence
- course
- JURM02 20201
- year
- 2020
- type
- H3 - Professional qualifications (4 Years - )
- subject
- keywords
- associationsrätt, förmögenhetsrätt, aktiemarknadsrätt
- language
- Swedish
- id
- 9010596
- date added to LUP
- 2020-06-21 12:22:29
- date last changed
- 2020-06-21 12:22:29
@misc{9010596,
abstract = {{When a company wants to acquire a publicly traded company, it must do so by launching a takeover bid. The takeover is usually done in several steps, one of them being the due diligence. The due diligence is done to evaluate the attractivity of the target company as well as the risks of the takeover. What the due diligence investigates may depend on the key interests of the potential buyer, but can usually involve commercial, financial, and legal aspects of the target company. Although the board of the target company is not part of the deal itself, it is the board that decides what access the potential buyer gets to the company's information.
The due diligence may give the potential buyer access to information that is not available to the public. Under certain conditions, such information may constitute inside information. Inside information is defined in the Market Abuse Regulation (MAR). By definition, inside information is information of a specific nature, which has not been made public, that is linked to a company's shares and that if it were published would be likely to have a significant impact on the price of said shares.
The definition is not entirely straightforward and consists of several assessments that must be done on a case-by-case basis. However, if the information in question is to be regarded as inside information, then it must be made public as soon as possible. Under certain circumstances however, the issuer may delay such disclosure. These circumstances are reviewed in this paper. Furthermore, disclosure of inside information in other ways than to the public is unlawful, unless it is made in the normal exercise of an employment, a profession, or duties.
The main subject of this paper is to investigate the conditions under which the target company's board should give potential buyers access to inside information, and how that information should be handled during the remaining acquisition process.
The answer depends on a number of assessments that vary from case to case. As a starting point, the due diligence should be allowed only if it is in the interest of the shareholders to receive the bid, and the due diligence is a necessary condition for the bid to be submitted. Furthermore, inside information should only be provided to the buyer if it is a prerequisite for conducting the due diligence and thereby the submission of the bid.
If the target company provides inside information to the buyer, the target company is obligated to make that information public as soon as possible. However, that obligation differs from the above stated. This paper investigates the different obligations to make inside information public as soon as possible. In summary, inside information which is made available to the buyer must be made public at the earliest of the following:
- When the reason to delay the disclosure of the inside information is no longer valid, or
- When the bid is presented to the shareholder.}},
author = {{Nilsson, Jakob}},
language = {{swe}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Om emittenters hantering av insiderinformation vid due diligence-undersökningar}},
year = {{2020}},
}