Description

Due to the concentration of shareholdings in Asian companies generally, takeovers of public listed companies take on specific characteristics. Voluntary takeovers of the type prevalent in markets such as the United States and the United Kingdom play only a limited role. Instead, orchestrated changes of control through stake sales by existing controllers result in the acquirer triggering the mandatory offer requirement under takeover regulation. This webinar involves a comparative analysis of mandatory takeovers in the six Asian jurisdictions of China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, and Singapore. It identifies the similarities and differences in the rules and practices across these jurisdictions.

About the Speakers

Wai Yee WAN is Associate Dean (Research and Internationalisation) and Professor, School of Law, City University of Hong Kong. Prior to this, she was at Singapore Management University (SMU), where she last held the positions of Dean of Post-graduate Research Programmes and Professor of Law.

Her main areas of research are in corporate law, mergers and acquisitions, securities regulation, financial consumer regulation and global restructuring and insolvency.
Her publications have appeared in books and in international peer-reviewed legal journals, including American Journal of Comparative Law, Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, European Business Organisations Law Review, Journal of Corporate Law Studies, Journal of Business Law, Company and Securities Law Journal and Lloyds’ Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly Foundation Fellowship for Research Excellence. She is on the editorial boards of International Insolvency Review, Australian Journal of Corporate Law and Company Lawyer and she has served on national committees relating to law reform and policy in Singapore.

Umakanth Varottil is Associate Professor at Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore. He specializes in corporate law and governance, mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance. While his work is generally comparative in nature, his specific focus is on India and Singapore. He has co-authored or co-edited five books, published articles in international journals and founded the IndiaCorpLaw Blog. He has also taught on a visiting basis at law schools in Australia, India, Italy, New Zealand and the United States.

Umakanth is an editor of the Oxford Business Law Blog, Indian Law Review, Asian Journal of Comparative Law and Singapore Journal of Legal Studies. He is also a Research Member of the European Corporate Governance Institute. Prior to his foray into academia, Umakanth was a partner at a pre-eminent law firm in India. During that time, he was also ranked as a leading corporate/mergers & acquisitions lawyer in India by the Chambers Global Guide.