Companies making false M&A disclosures will face heavy penalty: CCI Chief
In a recent interview, Competition Commission of India (CCI) Chairperson said that Companies making incomplete or false disclosures to the Competition Commission of India (CCI) will face aggravated penalties. While referring to the proposed provisions of the Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2022, he said that these provisions will work on trust-based system for faster approval of merger and acquisitions. Those found exploiting this trust-based regime by making incomplete disclosures will be penalised heavily.
The amendment bill has been referred to Parliament’s standing committee on finance. Among other key changes, the bill proposes to reduce the overall time limit for approving M&As to 150 days from 210 days. The bill further mandates the competition watchdog to form a prima facie opinion within 20 days of the receipt of notice. The bill also proposes to capture overseas M&As by introducing a new mandatory condition for filing a notification with the CCI. All M&A deals will need to be notified to the CCI if the deal value exceeds Rs 2,000 crore and the target company fulfils the local nexus criterion.
