Companies Act, 1956

Companies Act, 1956

The terms merger and amalgamation have not been defined in the Companies Act, 1956 (hereinafter referred to as the Act) though this voluminous piece of legislation contains 69 definitions in Section 2. The concept paper recently issued by the Ministry of Company Affairs, the fate of which is still unknown, contained 100 such definitions but still stopped short of defining merger or amalgamation. The terms merger and amalgamation are synonyms and the term ‘amalgamation’, as per Concise Oxford Dictionary, Tenth Edition, means, ‘to combine or unite to form one organization or structure’.

The provisions relating to merger and amalgamation are contained in sections 391 to 396A in Chapter V of Part VI of the Act. Any proposal of amalgamation or merger begins with the process of due diligence, as the proposal for merger without due diligence is like entering a tunnel with darkness growing with each step. The due diligence process makes the journey see the light at the end of the tunnel – the light of wisdom to amalgamate or not.

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