Leaks of confidential deal info in Australia attract regulatory scrutiny

Australia’s leaky M&A market is worrying market regulators.

One of the most notorious examples came last year, during a deal involving Nitro Software, when a newspaper published the names of the regulators on Australia’s Takeovers Panel that were scrutinising the transaction.

As a result of disclosures like this, both the Takeovers Panel and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) have expressed concerns about drops of confidential deal information through backchannels.

Simon Segal, Mergermarket’s Australia director, joins Dealcast host Julie-Anna Needham to discuss the different reasons why market insiders leak information.

• Are deals where info is leaked more likely to lapse than those that maintain a veil of secrecy?
• What are the penalties for deal practitioners who get caught leaking confidential information?
• Is there a market transparency case to justify some leaks some of the time?

All this and more in this week’s Dealcast