Chanticleer

Why investors should care about ‘clunky’ merger rules

While hostile M&A deals are rare, they help keep boards on their toes. Investors should care about proposed merger reforms.

Oct 28, 2024 – 7.55pm

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The ACCC wasn’t notified about a handful of creeping mergers and the government’s pulled out a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Corporate lawyers will start taking their clients’ deals down the new regime mid next year, and we’re yet to find one happy about it.

The most significant change is mandatory notification, which puts Australia in line with what’s happening in other parts of the world. Lawyers get that bit – regulators like to be in unison, and the ACCC was smart enough to pull out examples in ports and cranes where it wasn’t notified of deals and customers were worse off.

Anthony Macdonald is a Chanticleer columnist. He is a former Street Talk co-editor and has 10 years' experience as a business journalist and worked at PwC, auditing and advising financial services companies.