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48-572: Volvo Buses ( Volvo Bus Corporation ; formal name: Volvo Bussar AB ), stylized as VOLVO , is a subsidiary and a business area of the Swedish vehicle maker Volvo , which became an independent division in 1968. It is based in Gothenburg . It is one of the world's largest bus manufacturers, with a complete range of heavy buses for passenger transportation. The product range includes complete buses and coaches as well as chassis combined with

96-405: A corporate , although this term can also apply to cooperating companies and their subsidiaries with varying degrees of shared ownership. A parent company does not have to be the larger or "more powerful" entity; it is possible for the parent company to be smaller than a subsidiary, such as DanJaq , a closely held family company, which controls Eon Productions , the large corporation which manages

144-455: A corporate raider , can purchase a large fraction of the company's stock and, in doing so, get enough votes to replace the board of directors and the CEO . With a new agreeable management team, the stock is, potentially, a much more attractive investment, which might result in a price rise and a profit for the corporate raider and the other shareholders. A well-known example of a reverse takeover in

192-425: A merger or takeover. The party who initiates a hostile takeover bid approaches the shareholders directly, as opposed to seeking approval from officers or directors of the company. A takeover is considered hostile if the target company's board rejects the offer, and if the bidder continues to pursue it, or the bidder makes the offer directly after having announced its firm intention to make an offer. Development of

240-399: A "loan note alternative" that allows shareholders to take a part or all of their consideration in loan notes rather than cash. This is done primarily to make the offer more attractive in terms of taxation . A conversion of shares into cash is counted as a disposal that triggers a payment of capital gains tax , whereas if the shares are converted into other securities , such as loan notes,

288-642: A company (usually with limited liability ) and may be a government-owned or state-owned enterprise . They are a common feature of modern business life, and most multinational corporations organize their operations in this way. Examples of holding companies are Berkshire Hathaway , Jefferies Financial Group , The Walt Disney Company , Warner Bros. Discovery , or Citigroup ; more focused companies include IBM , Xerox , and Microsoft . These, and others, organize their businesses into national and functional subsidiaries, often with multiple levels of subsidiaries. Subsidiaries are separate, distinct legal entities for

336-417: A company an easier takeover target. When the company gets bought out (or taken private) – at a dramatically lower price – the takeover artist gains a windfall from the former top executive's actions to surreptitiously reduce the company's stock price. This can represent tens of billions of dollars (questionably) transferred from previous shareholders to the takeover artist. The former top executive

384-639: A comprehensive range of services. The bus operation has a global presence, with production in Europe, North and South America, Asia and Australia. In India it set up its production facility in Bangalore. A former production facility was located in Irvine , Scotland (closed in 2000). Codes in parentheses are VIN codes for the chassis models. Bus makers owned/acquired by Volvo: Volvo bus (best for purchasing volvo bus) Subsidiary The subsidiary can be

432-487: A definition that provides that "control" is "the capacity of an entity to dominate decision-making, directly or indirectly, in relation to the financial and operating policies of another entity so as to enable that other entity to operate with it in pursuing the objectives of the controlling entity". This definition was adapted in the Australian Corporations Act 2001 : s 50AA. Furthermore, it can be

480-768: A high-risk position. High leverage will lead to high profits if circumstances go well but can lead to catastrophic failure if they do not. This can create substantial negative externalities for governments, employees, suppliers and other stakeholders . Corporate takeovers occur frequently in the United States , Canada , United Kingdom , France and Spain . They happen only occasionally in Italy because larger shareholders (typically controlling families) often have special board voting privileges designed to keep them in control. They do not happen often in Germany because of

528-462: A hostile bidder because of the relative lack of target information which is available to them. Under Delaware law, boards must engage in defensive actions that are proportional to the hostile bidder's threat to the target company. A well-known example of an extremely hostile takeover was Oracle's bid to acquire PeopleSoft . As of 2018, about 1,788 hostile takeovers with a total value of US$ 28.86 billion had been announced. A reverse takeover

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576-404: A joint arrangement (joint operation or joint venture) over which two or more parties have joint control (IFRS 11 para 4). Joint control is the contractually agreed sharing of control of an arrangement, which exists only when decisions about the relevant activities require the unanimous consent of the parties sharing control. The Companies Act 2006 contains two definitions: one of "subsidiary" and

624-432: A judgment against the parent if they can pierce the corporate veil and prove that the parent and subsidiary are mere alter egos of one another. Thus any copyrights, trademarks, and patents remain with the subsidiary until the parent shuts down the subsidiary. Ownership of a subsidiary is usually achieved by owning a majority of its shares . This gives the parent the necessary votes to elect their nominees as directors of

672-401: A new market without having to take on the risk, time and expense of starting a new division. An acquiring company could decide to take over a competitor not only because the competitor is profitable, but in order to eliminate competition in its field and make it easier, in the long term, to raise prices. Also a takeover could fulfill the belief that the combined company can be more profitable than

720-581: A new one which will approve the takeover. Another method involves quietly purchasing enough stock on the open market, known as a creeping tender offer or dawn raid , to effect a change in management. In all of these ways, management resists the acquisition, but it is carried out anyway. In the United States, a common defense tactic against hostile takeovers is to use section 16 of the Clayton Act to seek an injunction, arguing that section 7 of

768-628: A previous purchase of shares. In particular: The Rules Governing the Substantial Acquisition of Shares, which used to accompany the Code and which regulated the announcement of certain levels of shareholdings, have now been abolished, though similar provisions still exist in the Companies Act 1985 . There are a variety of reasons why an acquiring company may wish to purchase another company. Some takeovers are opportunistic –

816-469: A public perception that private entities are more efficiently run, reinforcing the political will to sell off public assets. Takeovers also tend to substitute debt for equity. In a sense, any government tax policy of allowing for deduction of interest expenses but not of dividends , has essentially provided a substantial subsidy to takeovers. It can punish more-conservative or prudent management that does not allow their companies to leverage themselves into

864-480: A publicly held asset or non-profit organization undergoes privatization . Top executives often reap tremendous monetary benefits when a government owned or non-profit entity is sold to private hands. Just as in the example above, they can facilitate this process by making the entity appear to be in financial crisis. This perception can reduce the sale price (to the profit of the purchaser) and make non-profits and governments more likely to sell. It can also contribute to

912-492: A struggling company with a very well-known brand. Examples include: Often a company acquiring another pays a specified amount for it. This money can be raised in a number of ways. Although the company may have sufficient funds available in its account, remitting payment entirely from the acquiring company's cash on hand is unusual. More often, it will be borrowed from a bank , or raised by an issue of bonds . Acquisitions financed through debt are known as leveraged buyouts , and

960-462: A subsidiary undertaking, if: The broader definition of "subsidiary undertaking" is applied to the accounting provisions of the Companies Act 2006, while the definition of "subsidiary" is used for general purposes. In Oceania , the accounting standards defined the circumstances in which one entity controls another. In doing so, they largely abandoned the legal control concepts in favour of

1008-483: A takeover of a company consists of simply an offer of an amount of money per share (as opposed to all or part of the payment being in shares or loan notes), then this is an all-cash deal. The purchasing company can source the necessary cash in a variety of ways, including existing cash resources, loans, or a separate issue of company shares . Takeovers in the UK (meaning acquisitions of public companies only) are governed by

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1056-479: A useful part of the company that allows every head of the company to apply new projects and latest rules. Hostile takeover In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (the target ) by another (the acquirer or bidder ). In the UK , the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are publicly listed, in contrast to the acquisition of a private company . Management of

1104-1002: Is a subsidiary/child company of the ultimate parent company, while a second-tier subsidiary is a subsidiary of a first-tier subsidiary: a "grandchild" of the main parent company. Consequently, a third-tier subsidiary is a subsidiary of a second-tier subsidiary—a "great-grandchild" of the main parent company. The ownership structure of the small British specialist company Ford Component Sales, which sells Ford components to specialist car manufacturers and OEM manufacturers, such as Morgan Motor Company and Caterham Cars , illustrates how multiple levels of subsidiaries are used in large corporations: The word "control" and its derivatives (subsidiary and parent) may have different meanings in different contexts. These concepts may have different meanings in various areas of law (e.g. corporate law , competition law , capital markets law ) or in accounting . For example, if Company A purchases shares in Company B, it

1152-488: Is a type of takeover where a public company acquires a private company. This is usually done at the instigation of the private company, the purpose being for the private company to effectively float itself while avoiding some of the expense and time involved in a conventional IPO . However, in the UK under AIM rules, a reverse takeover is an acquisition or acquisitions in a twelve-month period which for an AIM company would: An individual or organization, sometimes known as

1200-497: Is possible that the transaction is not subject to merger control (because Company A had been deemed to already control Company B before the share purchase, under competition law rules), but at the same time Company A may be required to start consolidating Company B into its financial statements under the relevant accounting rules (because it had been treated as a joint venture before the purchase for accounting purposes). Control can be direct (e.g., an ultimate parent company controls

1248-466: Is then rewarded with a golden handshake for presiding over the fire sale that can sometimes be in the hundreds of millions of dollars for one or two years of work. This is nevertheless an excellent bargain for the takeover artist, who will tend to benefit from developing a reputation of being very generous to parting top executives. This is just one example of a principal-agent problem, otherwise regarded as perverse incentive . Similar issues occur when

1296-506: The City Code on Takeovers and Mergers , also known as the 'City Code' or 'Takeover Code'. The rules for a takeover can be found in what is primarily known as 'The Blue Book'. The Code used to be a non-statutory set of rules that was controlled by city institutions on a theoretically voluntary basis. However, as a breach of the Code brought such reputational damage and the possibility of exclusion from city services run by those institutions, it

1344-470: The James Bond franchise. Conversely, the parent may be larger than some or all of its subsidiaries (if it has more than one), as the relationship is defined by control of ownership shares, not the number of employees. The parent and the subsidiary do not necessarily have to operate in the same locations or operate the same businesses. Not only is it possible that they could conceivably be competitors in

1392-478: The United Kingdom was Darwen Group 's 2008 takeover of Optare plc . This was also an example of a back-flip takeover (see below) as Darwen was rebranded to the more well-known Optare name. A backflip takeover is any sort of takeover in which the acquiring company turns itself into a subsidiary of the purchased company. This type of takeover can occur when a larger but less well-known company purchases

1440-420: The act, which prohibits acquisitions where the effect may be substantially to lessen competition or to tend to create a monopoly, would be violated if the offeror acquired the target's stock. The main consequence of a bid being considered hostile is practical rather than legal. If the board of the target cooperates, the bidder can conduct extensive due diligence into the affairs of the target company, providing

1488-413: The bidder with a comprehensive analysis of the target company's finances. In contrast, a hostile bidder will only have more limited, publicly available information about the target company available, rendering the bidder vulnerable to hidden risks regarding the target company's finances. Since takeovers often require loans provided by banks in order to service the offer, banks are often less willing to back

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1536-581: The company's profitability appear temporarily poorer, or simply promote and report severely conservative (i.e. pessimistic) estimates of future earnings. Such seemingly adverse earnings news will be likely to (at least temporarily) reduce the company's stock price. (This is again due to information asymmetries since it is more common for top executives to do everything they can to window dress their company's earnings forecasts.) There are typically very few legal risks to being 'too conservative' in one's accounting and earnings estimates. A reduced share price makes

1584-402: The debt will often be moved down onto the balance sheet of the acquired company. The acquired company then has to pay back the debt. This is a technique often used by private equity companies. The debt ratio of financing can go as high as 80% in some cases. In such a case, the acquiring company would only need to raise 20% of the purchase price. Cash offers for public companies often include

1632-453: The first-tier subsidiary directly) or indirect (e.g., an ultimate parent company controls second and lower tiers of subsidiaries indirectly, through first-tier subsidiaries). Recital 31 of Directive 2013/34/EU stipulates that control should be based on holding a majority of voting rights, but control may also exist where there are agreements with fellow shareholders or members. In certain circumstances, control may be effectively exercised where

1680-407: The hostile takeover is attributed to Louis Wolfson . A hostile takeover can be conducted in several ways. A tender offer can be made where the acquiring company makes a public offer at a fixed price above the current market price . An acquiring company can also engage in a proxy fight , whereby it tries to persuade enough shareholders, usually a simple majority , to replace the management with

1728-490: The management of the target company. Before a bidder makes an offer for another company, it usually first informs the company's board of directors . Ideally, if the board feels that accepting the offer serves the shareholders better than rejecting it, it recommends the offer be accepted by the shareholders. In a private company, because the shareholders and the board are usually the same people or closely connected with one another, private acquisitions are usually friendly. If

1776-555: The marketplace, but such arrangements happen frequently at the end of a hostile takeover or voluntary merger. Also, because a parent company and a subsidiary are separate entities, it is entirely possible for one of them to be involved in legal proceedings, bankruptcy, tax delinquency, indictment or under investigation while the other is not. In descriptions of larger corporate structures, the terms "first-tier subsidiary", "second-tier subsidiary", "third-tier subsidiary", etc. describe multiple levels of subsidiaries. A first-tier subsidiary

1824-482: The other "subsidiary undertaking". According to s.1159 of the Act, a company is a "subsidiary" of another company, its "holding company", if that other company: The second definition is broader. According to s.1162 of the Companies Act 2006, an undertaking is a parent undertaking in relation to another undertaking, a subsidiary undertaking, if: An undertaking is also a parent undertaking in relation to another undertaking,

1872-471: The parent holds a minority or none of the shares in the subsidiary. According to Article 22 of the directive 2013/34/EU an undertaking is a parent if it: Additionally, control may arise when: Under the international accounting standards adopted by the EU a company is deemed to control another company only if it has all the following: A subsidiary can have only one parent; otherwise, the subsidiary is, in fact,

1920-430: The purposes of taxation , regulation and liability . For this reason, they differ from divisions which are businesses fully integrated within the main company, and not legally or otherwise distinct from it. In other words, a subsidiary can sue and be sued separately from its parent and its obligations will not normally be the obligations of its parent. However, creditors of an insolvent subsidiary may be able to obtain

1968-407: The shareholders agree to sell the company, then the board is usually of the same mind or sufficiently under the orders of the equity shareholders to cooperate with the bidder. This point is not relevant to the UK concept of takeovers, which always involve the acquisition of a public company. A hostile takeover allows a bidder to take over a target company whose management is unwilling to agree to

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2016-407: The simple effect of the profitability of the target company being added to the acquiring company's profitability. For example, an acquiring company may decide to purchase a company that is profitable and has good distribution capabilities in new areas which the acquiring company can use for its own products as well. A target company might be attractive because it allows the acquiring company to enter

2064-460: The subsidiary, and so exercise control. This gives rise to the common presumption that 50% plus one share is enough to create a subsidiary. There are, however, other ways that control can come about, and the exact rules both as to what control is needed, and how it is achieved, can be complex (see below). A subsidiary may itself have subsidiaries, and these, in turn, may have subsidiaries of their own. A parent and all its subsidiaries together are called

2112-402: The target company may or may not agree with a proposed takeover, and this has resulted in the following takeover classifications: friendly, hostile, reverse or back-flip. Financing a takeover often involves loans or bond issues which may include junk bonds as well as a simple cash offers. It can also include shares in the new company. A friendly takeover is an acquisition which is approved by

2160-434: The target company may simply be very reasonably priced for one reason or another and the acquiring company may decide that in the long run, it will end up making money by purchasing the target company. The large holding company Berkshire Hathaway has profited well over time by purchasing many companies opportunistically in this manner. Other takeovers are strategic in that they are thought to have secondary effects beyond

2208-432: The tax is rolled over. A takeover, particularly a reverse takeover , may be financed by an all-share deal. The bidder does not pay money, but instead issues new shares in itself to the shareholders of the company being acquired. In a reverse takeover the shareholders of the company being acquired end up with a majority of the shares in, and so control of, the company making the bid. The company has managerial rights. If

2256-466: The two companies would be separately due to a reduction of redundant functions. Takeovers may also benefit from a principal-agent problem associated with top executive compensation. For example, it is fairly easy for a top executive to reduce the price of their company's stock due to information asymmetry . The executive can accelerate accounting of expected expenses, delay accounting of expected revenue, engage in off-balance-sheet transactions to make

2304-514: Was regarded as binding. In 2006, the Code was put onto a statutory footing as part of the UK's compliance with the European Takeover Directive (2004/25/EC). The Code requires that all shareholders in a company should be treated equally. It regulates when and what information companies must and cannot release publicly in relation to the bid, sets timetables for certain aspects of the bid, and sets minimum bid levels following

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