[Last updated: 1 January 2025, unless otherwise noted]
In a typical friendly acquisition, following successful negotiations with target management and, where applicable, the controlling shareholder or group of shareholders of the target company, a typical timeline would look as follows:
| Date | Step |
|
Official announcement of the intention to launch a general offer |
|
|
Before filing offer document |
Preparation of offer document, including expert’s report and confirmation of financing arrangements. |
|
10 trading days after announcement of offer (ATC may extend this by to up to 40 trading days) |
Filing of offer document with the ATC, which will review the document. In practice, the bidder will typically discuss the structure of the offer and the offer document with the ATC between filing and publication and make amendments where requested by the ATC. |
|
12-15 trading days after filing of offer document |
Publication of offer document, unless the ATC formally prohibits publication or extends time for review of the document. |
|
Between four and 10 weeks after publication of offer document |
Offer open for acceptances. |
|
Immediately after end of the acceptance period |
Publication of results, including announcement of additional acceptance period, where applicable. |
|
Period of three months after publication of offer results |
Additional acceptance period in the case of mandatory bids and whenever an offer was subject to a minimum acceptance condition. |
Where a competing offer is made, the acceptance period of the original offer will automatically be extended to match the competing offer’s timeline, unless the original bidder has retained the right to withdraw its offer in case of a more favorable competing bid and chooses to exercise this right.
Set out below is an overview of the main steps for a takeover offer in Austria.
5.1 Indicative timeline of a takeover offer
Click here to view diagram for Austria.