UK Takeover Code Update - Panel publishes Practice Statement 31 - Strategic reviews and formal sale processes

On 7 July 2017, the UK Takeover Panel published Practice Statement No 31, which describes the way in which the Panel Executive normally interprets and applies certain aspects of the Takeover Code when a company wishes to seek bidders for itself, typically via an announcement of a formal sale process or a strategic review that may result in a sale.

The publication of PS31 indicates that the Executive intends to be more prescriptive about the application of the Code to auctions conducted by the target company. The key rules of the Code affected by PS31 are Rule 2 (secrecy and announcements), Rule 21.2 (deal protection measures) and Rule 21.3 (equality of information between bidders).