Fairness Opinions 2012
The Professional Board had been made aware of differing practice in the preparation of “Fairness Opinions” in respect of corporate transactions. In some countries there are requirements governing who may provide such opinions and what they may contain, but these are not consistent. In some jurisdictions there is no regulation at all. The Board agreed a project to examine the various codes in place and to produce guidelines for preparing fairness opinions to indicate the specific issues that generally need to be addressed in accepting and progressing an assignment, and how these relate the provisions of the IVS.
A Working Group of practitioners with experience of providing fairness opinions in North America, Europe and Australasia was assembled.
An Exposure Draft was published in early March 2012, with a comment period until 31 May 2012.
After reviewing the comments received on the draft, further consultation with some of the respondents and additional research into the different regulatory regimes in the major markets where fairness opinions are provided, the Board concluded that it any guidance it could produce would have little practical benefit as it would frequently be overidden by the requirements of the jurisdaiction in which the transaction was taking place. Also, in some major markets the legal framework for fairness opinions has evolved through judicial decisions and the Board was concerned that guidance it gave could be seen as providing a legal opinion or interpretation that could be used out of context.
At is meeting in March 2013 the Board agreed to suspend the project.
Working Group:
| Board members | ||
| Doug McPhee – Chairman | Professional Board | New Zealand |
| Jim Eales | Standards Board | Australia |
| Frank Bollmann | Standards Board | Australia |
| External Members | ||
| Paul Gill | KPMG | Canada |
| Bill Stamatis | Deloitte | Canada |
| Gil Matthews | Sutter Securities | USA |
| John Gibson | Ernst & Young | Australia |
| Jean-Florent Rerolle | KPMG | France |
Background
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