New structure to overcome tender offer requirements under Vietnam securities law

Under the Securities Law 2019, a proposed buyer (the Buyer) who wish to acquire 25% or more of total shares (the Sale Shares) of a public company (the Target) must comply with tender offer requirements (see here). However, based on the new potential exemption of tender offers available at law, there may be a potential way of not having to follow the tender offer procedures by merging the buyer and the seller’s relevant entities of as follows:

  • Step 1: The selling shareholder (the Seller) sets up a special purpose company for this sale transaction (the SPV1) by way of contributing all the Sale Shares into the SPV1. This step does not trigger a tender offer requirement since it is an intra-group transfer of the Sale Shares.

  • Step 2: The Buyer sets up another special purpose company for this transaction (the SPV2) by way of contributing to the SPV2 an amount of cash equivalent to purchase price of Sale Shares; and

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Written by Nguyen Quang Vu On In ,

New guidance on foreclosure of shares and other securities registered with the Vietnam Securities Depository

On 26 August 2020, the Vietnam Securities Depository (VSD) issued Decision 154/QD-VSD (Decision 154/2020) to allow a lender who has taken a mortgage over shares or other securities registered with the VSD (Public Securities) to request the VSD to transfer the mortgaged or pledged Public Securities to a third party designated by the lender, if the mortgage or pledge agreement allows the lender to do so.

Previously, the VSD only transfers the Public Securities to the lenders when the lenders take actions to enforce a mortgage or pledge over Public Securities. Accordingly, the old regulations could cause problems for lenders who are subject to restrictions in directly holding the relevant Public Securities (e.g., ownership limit or other investment conditions).

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Written by Nguyen Quang Vu On In ,

Exemptions Of Tender Offer Under The Securities Law 2019

Under the Securities Law 2019, regarding a public joint stock company (the target company), those entities who fall into tender offer triggering circumstances do not have to conduct a tender offer in some specific circumstances. In particular:

· Circumstance 1: Purchasing of newly issued shares, which results in the ownership reaching the tender offer triggering limits, in accordance with the issuance plan approved by the target company’s General Shareholder Meeting.

· Circumstance 2: Receiving the transfer of the outstanding voting shares, which results in the ownership reaching the tender offer triggering limits, as approved by the target company’s General Shareholder Meeting. In such circumstances, the General Shareholder Meeting must clearly identify the transferor and the transferee.

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Written by Nguyen Quang Vu On In , ,