What should your company consider before implementing a share award scheme?
1. Eligibility of employees Is the scheme limited to employees of the holding company or includes its subsidiaries? What are the eligibility requirements of employees who will be considered for the scheme? (e.g. at least 18 years old, confirmed full time employee, minimum length of service and performance metrics). 2. …
Which salient terms of contracts should be disclosed in prospectuses and circulars?
Disclosure of salient terms of certain contracts is required in prospectuses and circulars to shareholders of public listed companies in Malaysia for specific corporate exercises. When determining which contract provisions should be included as salient terms, consider the following: 1. Identify Governing Laws Identify the relevant laws that govern the …
IPO: Consider this before converting a private company to a public company
For IPO exercise in Malaysia, the following usually takes place before submission of the IPO application to the authorities: conversion of the holding company (Listco) from a private company to a public company (Conversion); the Listco enters into agreements with promoters to acquire their shares in the proposed subsidiaries to …
Why should a company adopt a constitution?
In the context of an M&A transaction, why can’t shareholders solely rely on a shareholders’ agreement after completion of the transaction? Where there is more than one shareholder after completion, the next step after execution of a shareholders’ agreement is to either amend or adopt a constitution that is consistent …
Indirect Substantial Shareholder
A person can be a substantial shareholder in a company without directly holding any shares in that company. One of the challenges that often arises when I work on IPOs or other equity capital market exercises is the assessment of whether an individual holds an indirect substantial shareholding in a …
Subscribing or acquiring shares: check the pre-emptive rights first
An investor who wants to subscribe to shares or acquire shares in a private company should first consider whether there are any restrictions to do so in the following documents: 1. Constitution of the company (if the company has adopted a constitution); and 2. Shareholders agreement (if the current shareholders …
IPO is like an open book exam
Me: “IPO is like an open book exam. You can see from the prospectuses the kind of issues typically encountered by companies going for listing.” My learned friend: “Yeah, but it is a 300 to 400+ pages of open book exam.” While not every IPO is the same, the following …
Terms of preference shares
When drafting the terms and conditions of preference shares, you may want to consider the following: 1. Number of preference shares to be issued 2. Issuance price 3. Dividend • Rate of dividend • Whether dividend is cumulative • Time for dividend payment 4. Tenure of preference shares Whether the …
We could go to jail for this
“We could go to jail for this,” I half-jokingly told my team members. As I briefed them on a corporate finance exercise, I wanted to make sure that they understand their responsibilities. It is an offence under the Capital Markets and Services Act 2017 to submit any information that is …
Understand corporate finance/ECM work
When I started working on corporate finance transactions as a junior lawyer, it was overwhelming. It was a constant rush to ensure comments for announcements, circulars and submission documents were sent to principal advisers in time for the announcements and submissions to be made. Lunch time in the early years …