Israel Company Law 1999

Chapter 2: Special Tender Offer

328. (a) In a public company, no purchase shall be effected as a result of which a person shall become a holder of a control block if there is no such holder in the company; likewise no purchase shall be effected as a result of which the purchaser’s holdings shall increase above forty-five percent of the voting rights in the company if there is no other person holding more than one-half of the voting rights in the company, other than by way of a tender offer in accordance with the provisions of this Chapter (hereinafter “a special tender offer”).

(b) The provisions of subsection (a) shall not apply to the purchase of shares under a private placement.

(c) The provisions of this Chapter shall apply to a special tender offer, in addition to the provisions of any law regarding tender offers that are not consistent with the provisions of this Chapter.

Purchase of control block or of control

329. Where a special tender offer has been made, the board of directors of the target company shall give its opinion to offerees regarding the advisability of the special tender offer, or shall refrain from giving its opinion on the advisability of the special tender offer, if it is unable to do so, provided that it reports the reasons for its not so doing; the board of directors shall disclose all personal interests of each of the directors in or stemming from the tender offer.

Opinion of board of directors

330. (a) An office holder in a target company who does an act by virtue of his office, other than acts referred to in subsection (b), the purpose of which is to forestall an existing or anticipated special tender offer, or to harm the chances of its being accepted, shall be liable to the offeror and the offerees for any damage resulting from his acts, unless he acted in good faith and had reasonable grounds for presuming that the act done by him was for the good of the company.

(b) An office holder may negotiate with an offeror for the improvement of the conditions of his offer, and may negotiate with others in order to make a counter-offer.

Duties of office holders

331. (a) A special tender offer shall be made to all offerees and the offerees may notify their consent to the special tender offer or of their objection to it.

(b) A special tender offer shall only be accepted by a majority of the votes of those offerees who gave notice of their position in respect of the offer.

(c) In counting the votes of offerees, the votes of a holder of control in the offeror, being a holder of a control block in the company, or any person acting on their or on the offeror’s behalf, including their relatives or corporations under their control, shall not be taken into account.

(d) Where a special tender offer has been accepted, offerees who have not given notice of their position in respect of the tender offer, or who have objected to it, may consent to the offer, no more than four days after the last day for accepting the tender offer, or on such other date as the Minister may prescribe in this respect, and they shall be considered to have consented to the offer from the outset.

Consent of shareholders

332. A special tender offer shall not be accepted unless shares conferring at least five percent of the voting rights in the company have been purchased.

Minimum acceptance

333. (a) Shares purchased in contravention of the provisions of this Chapter shall not confer any rights and shall be dormant shares, as defined in section 308, for so long as they are held by the purchaser.

(b) Without prejudice to the provisions subsection (a), where the rate of a person’s holdings of voting rights increases, otherwise than due to a purchase under the provisions of section 328, to a rate conferring on him a control block where there is no owner of a control block in the company, or a rate higher than forty-five percent of the voting rights in the company if there is no other person holding more than half of the voting rights in the company, inter alia, as a result of the shares in the company having become dormant following a distribution, voting rights shall not be conferred on shares held by such person at a rate of more than twenty five percent or forty-five percent, as the case may be, for so long as they are held by him.

(c) The infringement of the provisions of this Chapter shall be a breach of statutory duty towards the shareholders of the company.

Consequences of prohibited purchase

334. Where a special tender offer has been accepted, the offeror, any person controlling the offeror on the date of the offer, and any corporation controlled by them, shall not, for a period of one year following the date of the tender offer, make another tender offer for purchase of shares in the company, and they shall not effect a merger of the company unless they undertook to do so in the special tender offer.

Consecutive tender offers or mergers

335. The Minister, after consulting with the Securities Authority, may make provisions for the implementation of this Chapter, including provisions in respect of the manner of delivery of the special tender offer to offerees, and the receipt of their notices, and in particular, the Minister may apply the provisions concerning voting papers, and may prescribe the dates for holding special tender offers and the date for giving the opinion of the board of directors.

Regulations