The Executive Yuan passed a draft bill of the Merger and Acquisition Act (企業併購法) yesterday which is designed to regulate various business consolidation activities, said Frederic Chang (張平男), deputy director general of the Government Information Office.
The proposed law, drafted by the Council for Economic Planning and Development, will simplify merger procedures for companies in response to a request from businesses during the Economic Development Advisory Conference in late August, Chang said. "The draft bill -- along with the passage yesterday [by the Cabinet] of amendments to both Securities and Exchange Law and Fair Trade Law -- aims to construct a complete mechanism for business mergers and acquisitions," said Chang, after a Cabinet meeting held yesterday morning.
Indeed, after the Financial Institution Merger Act (金融機構合併法) was enacted in late June to facilitate more mergers and acquisitions in the financial sector, the government is eyeing the draft Merger and Acquisition Act as a possible mechanism to encourage more business mergers outside the financial sector, Chang said.
Following the downturn in the global capital markets over the past year, there has been an increase in merger and acquisition activity involving listed or public companies in Taiwan, such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) and World Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (世大半導體), as well as Yuan Ta Securities Corp (元大證券) and Core Pacific Securities Corp (京華證券).
Despite concerns that there is too much overlap between the draft bill and other regulations governing business consolidation, Chang said the bill aims to meet companies' needs at the current time.
"The government still has to amend those [governing] laws such as the Company Law, the Income Tax Law and the Labor Standards Law in the long run."
The draft bill now awaits approval by the Legislative Yuan.
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