Mini-tender Offers: Protection for Shareholders

Lord Forbes of Newcastle Excerpts

Wednesday 15th July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Stockwood (Lab)]

The noble Baroness is correct, of course. Mini-tenders are not a distinct regulatory category. However, we believe that the activities associated with them currently fall within in the existing regulatory framework, including financial promotion rules and market abuse legislation. Where those communications are misleading, the regulator absolutely has to act. Again, we remain open-minded. It is only right that the FCA does this assessment, then we will take it in to see whether regulation is appropriate.

[Lord Forbes of Newcastle (Lab)]

My Lords, given that these mini-tender offers succeed precisely because some shareholders may not recognise that the price they are being offered is well below market value, and because the offer may well be put to them using high-pressure sales techniques, can my noble friend the Minister give further consideration to assessing the levels of financial literacy among such shareholders, with a view to ensuring that those most at risk of exploitation are most clearly warned about these predatory practices?

[Lord Stockwood (Lab)]

My noble friend raises an important point about financial education and financial literacy more generally. Again, I am happy to write to him. There are a number of initiatives across government. We believe that this is an important issue. Shareholders benefit from strong protections under the law and the regulations that already exist. They have rights to information, voting and participation in company decision-making. However, the Digitisation Taskforce recommendations that have just come out appropriately highlight where information asymmetry exists and where we need to get better at protecting some of our less sophisticated investors. It has some specific recommendations around less sophisticated investors. Again, we remain open as a Government. The FCA, the regulator, takes this seriously. We need to use this example as a way to tighten up and make sure that those protections and that education are both appropriate.