Egypt's FRA introduces more amendments to statute of capital market law

CAIRO - 16 May 2018: Egypt's Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) board agreed on Wednesday to amend some articles of the statute of the Capital Market Law as regards acquisition and purchase bids.

The amendments aim at protecting the minority shareholder rights.

The amendments oblige companies, listed in foreign exchanges, to reveal all information regarding the purchase or acquisition bids to ensure equal chances to all shareholders, the authority said in a statement.

To protect minority shareholder rights, the amendments stipulate appointing an independent financial adviser to asses the price of shares.

Under the new amendments, the authority should first approve any acquisition of one third of shares of any company.

The amendments permit those who own more than one-third of a company's registered capital to increase their share to half the capital by not more than 5% per year without the need of the authority's approval.

These are the first amendments to be introduced to the Money Market Law articles regulating acquisition and purchase bids.

A draft of these amendments will be sent to the State Council for review within the coming few days.