Course Listing

Mergers and Acquisitions: A Practitioner's Perspective
Last Updated Date:   12 July 2024


5 Units,  Semester 2

Course Description:
This course will provide a practitioner's perspective on the bread and butter of any transactional practice: mergers and acquisitions (M&A) of non-listed, private companies. It will deal with the structuring of an M&A transaction (the what and why) and provide an overview of the legal basis underlying aspects of documentation (the why and how of documentation).

Many new graduates seem to be unable to see the wood for the trees. They arrive as trainees, with a reasonable grounding in the law, but an inability to apply it to real life situations. The practicalities elude them and they seem to want to follow templates without much understanding of the transaction. This course will attempt to give them a working knowledge of the issues to be considered in structuring a transaction. It will also cover the main features of standard documentation (bearing in mind that there is a discernible industry-standard set of documentation in common law countries) to explain why documents are drafted the way they are.

The course is taught interactively with an emphasis on class discussion and collaborative problem solving. PLEASE BE WARNED: First, this is a fast paced class that requires active participation, drawing on concepts taught in the first 2 years of law school.
Secondly, content is heavy and the final exam challenging.

Please click here for more details on the module.

Course Convenor: Adjunct A/P Rachel Tan

Co-teacher(s): NA

Course Codes: LL4327V / LL5327V / LL6327V / LLJ5327V

Contact Hours: 3 hour weekly seminar

Workload: 3 hours

Mode of Assessment: LLB: Class Participation - 25% & Final Exam - 75%
LLM: Class Participation - 30% & Final Exam - 70%.

The assessment weightage may be different for LLM students by agreement. This will be discussed in the first week

Preclusions: (1) LL4327/LL5327/LL6327 Mergers and Acquisitions: A Practitioner's Perspective; (2) LL4074/LL5074/LL6074; LL4074V/LL5074V/LL6074V Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A); (3) LL4223/LL5223/LL6223; LL4233V/LL5223V/LL6223V Cross Border Mergers

Prerequisites: NUS Compulsory Core Law Curriculum or common law equivalent. Contracts, Property, Equity & Trusts and Company Law. An ability to engage in rapid discussion and Q &A in English. Please take note that the pace of the class is fast and content is heavy. Students who do not come from a common law background may have difficulty with certain underlying concepts.

Examination Date: Wednesday, 30 April 2025 (AM)

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