Practical Law Corporate has published four new documents to its public mergers and acquisitions topic.

The newly published documents relate to takeover bids and include:

• Two practice notes designed to assist companies and their advisers prepare for and respond to an unsolicited takeover bid, as follows:
  • Practice note, Takeovers: preparing for an unsolicited takeover bid. This note provides an overview of the steps a target company may undertake to prepare for, and to be in a position to respond quickly to, an unsolicited or hostile takeover bid.
  • Practice note, Takeovers: target response to an unsolicited takeover bid. This note provides an overview of steps a target board may take in response to receiving an unsolicited or hostile takeover bid, and restrictions on certain defensive measures.
• Two checklists to assist bidders and their advisers to vary a takeover offer, as follows:
  • Checklist, Extending a takeover offer. This checklist sets out how the bidder may extend the offer period under a takeover bid.
  • Checklist, Varying a takeover offer to increase consideration. This checklist sets out how a bidder may vary an offer under a takeover bid to improve the offer consideration.