The Government has amended the SEBI (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations, 2011 and inserted the definition of “wilful defaulter” to mean any person who is categorized as a wilful defaulter by any bank or financial institution or consortium thereof, in accordance with the guidelines on wilful defaulters issued by the Reserve Bank of India and includes any person whose director, promoter or partner is categorized as such.
By further amendment, such a wilful defaulter is prohibited from making a public announcement of an open offer for acquiring shares or enter into any transaction that would attract the obligation to make a public announcement of an open offer for acquiring shares under the SEBI (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations, 2011, however this prohibition shall not disallow the wilful defaulter from making a competing offer in accordance with regulation 20 of the SEBI regulations upon any other person making an open offer for acquiring shares of the target company.