MINORITY shareholders of the Jardine group of companies will now find it difficult to benefit from a takeover bid after new statutory provisions became law earlier this month within the Bermuda Takeover Code.
Jardine, which shifted its corporate domicile to Bermuda in 1984, has managed to graft the British Code on Takeovers and Mergers into Bermuda Law. This code is far more strict than Hong Kong's takeover and merger rules.
As a result, the Keswick family, which controls the Jardine group despite owning only an estimated nine per cent of Jardine Matheson, has firmer control over the business empire.
While Jardine will remain bound by the Hong Kong takeover code, it now has the ability to break away from the territory's regulatory authorities in the future and still have a regime in place to protect the interests of shareholders.
The Bermuda Jardine Matheson Holdings Ltd Consolidation and Amendment Act 1988 was amended to incorporate the Bermuda Takeover Code, which will come into force on July 1, 1994.
In a circular sent to shareholders recently, Jardine chairman Simon Keswick diplomatically described the Bermuda Takeover Code as ''a natural progression'' of the process begun in the 1980s in conforming to the rules to which the company is subject.