Competing offers.
20. (1) Upon a public announcement of an open offer for acquiring shares of a target company being made, any person, other than the acquirer who has made such public announcement, shall be entitled to make a public announcement of an open offer within fifteen working days of the date of the detailed public statement made by the acquirer who has made the first public announcement.
2. The open offer made under sub-regulation (1) shall be for such number of shares which, when taken together with shares held by such acquirer along with persons acting in concert with him, shall be at least equal to the holding of the acquirer who has made the first public announcement, including the number of shares proposed to be acquired by him under the offer and any underlying agreement for the sale of shares of the target company pursuant to which the open offer is made.
3. Notwithstanding anything contained in these regulations, an open offer made within the period referred to in sub-regulation (1) shall not be regarded as a voluntary open offer under regulation 6, and the provisions of these regulations shall apply accordingly.
4. Every open offer made under sub-regulation (1) and the open offer first made shall be regarded as competing offers for purposes of these regulations.
5. No person shall be entitled to make a public announcement of an open offer for acquiring shares, or enter into any transaction that would attract the obligation to make a public announcement of an open offer for acquiring shares under these regulations, after the period of fifteen working days referred to in sub-regulation (1) and until the expiry of the offer period for such open offer.
6. Unless the open offer first made is an open offer conditional as to the minimum level of acceptances, no acquirer making a competing offer may be made conditional as to the minimum level of acceptances.
7. No person shall be entitled to make a public announcement of an open offer for acquiring shares, or enter into any transaction that would attract the obligation to make a public announcement of an open offer under these regulations until the expiry of the offer period where,—
a. the open offer is for acquisition of shares pursuant to disinvestment, in terms of clause (d) of sub-regulation (2) of regulation 13; or
b. the open offer is pursuant to a relaxation from strict compliance with the provisions of Chapter III or Chapter IV granted by the Board under sub-regulation (2) of regulation 11.
8. The schedule of activities and the tendering period for all competing offers shall be carried out with identical timelines and the last date for tendering shares in acceptance of the every competing offer shall stand revised to the last date for tendering shares in acceptance of the competing offer last made.
9. Upon the public announcement of a competing offer, an acquirer who had made a preceding competing offer shall be entitled to revise the terms of his open offer provided the revised terms are more favourable to the shareholders of the target company:
Provided that the acquirers making the competing offers shall be entitled to make upward revisions of the offer price at any time up to three working days prior to the commencement of the tendering period.
10. Except for variations made under this regulation, all the provisions of these regulations shall apply to every competing offer.