Mergers - breach of confidential guidance

The OFT has warned a firm about the consequences of any future breaches of the OFT's rules on disclosure of confidential guidance on mergers.

The firm had been involved in inadvertent disclosure of confidential guidance in the context of a due diligence exercise.
 
The OFT takes a serious view of any breach of the rules on disclosure of confidential guidances whether inadvertent or otherwise. These rules are set out in the OFT's procedural guidance issued under the Enterprise Act. Such confidential guidances are issued for the assistance of the business community and their advisers. The system depends on the maintenance of strict confidentiality.

The OFT wishes to remind companies, and their legal and financial advisers, of the consequences of a breach of the rules on disclosure of confidential guidance. These include the possibility that the OFT may, in appropriate circumstances, withdraw from particular organisations their ability to seek confidential guidance in the future.

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