This submission was released in February 1995. The submission assesses the Trade Practices Commission’s need for more, and more timely, information from firms intending to merge.

Download this publication

Pre-merger Notification and the Trade Practices Act 1974 (PDF 263.2 KB)

Contents

Preliminaries
Cover, Contents

1 Introduction

2 The Treasury Pre-merger Notification Proposal

3   Problems with Merger Oversight
3.1   Insufficient notice — midnight mergers
3.2   Excessive litigation costs
3.3   The inability of a divestment order to restore competition

4   Concerns with the Proposed Scheme
4.1   There are few ‘midnight mergers’
4.2   The proposed asset threshold
4.3   Does minority ownership deliver effective corporate control?
What is control?
When does a minority interest offer control?
Control thresholds in other legislation
4.4   Costs of pre-merger notification
Costs to merging parties
The efficiency of the market for corporate control
Opportunity costs to the TPC’s enforcement program

5   Some Less Burdensome Approaches to Pre-merger Notification
5.1   A shorter notification period
5.2   A corporate duty to notify

6 Conclusion

References

Printed copies

This publication is only available online.

Publications feedback

We value your comments about this publication and encourage you to provide feedback.

Submit publications feedback