§ Mr. Cantasked the Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection whether he will seek to introduce legislation to require a company, which makes a take-over bid for another company, to pay all the professional fees involved in a contested or actual reference to the Monopolies Commission, whether the bid is successful or unsuccessful.
§ Mr. John FraserI have no plans to do so. It is not essential for a company subject to a referred take-over bid to incur substantial expenditure on professional fees in order to ensure a fair and thorough consideration of its case by the Commission. Such legislation could unduly discourage firms whose intended acquisitions might be or were referred to the Commission from launching or continuing with their bids: it could be difficult to enforce on foreign bidders; and there would be considerable problems in assessing fairly what costs were eligible for reimbursement.