dawn raid

Dawn raid

A term of British origin used to describe the purchase of all available shares of a target company at the market's open by a raider. A dawn raid is a surprise technique that allows the raider to gain a substantial share of the target company before the target company knows what is happening.

Dawn Raid

In a hostile takeover, the act of an acquiring firm or, more rarely, an individual investor buying a substantial amount of a target firm's stock at the beginning of the trading day. One perpetrates a dawn raid to take the target firm by surprise; by not making a formal offer to buy the company before the dawn raid, the acquiring firm does not give the target firm the chance to enact an antitakeover measure that would increase the cost of the takeover. Regulations allow an acquiring firm to buy only 15% of the target firm in a dawn raid; many acquiring firms thus make formal offers after they have a significant stake in the target firm.

dawn raid

a situation in which a potential TAKEOVER bidder for a company buys a substantial shareholding in the target company at current market prices, often through intermediaries (to disguise the identity of the bidder). This shareholding can then be used as a platform for a full takeover bid for all the shares at a stated offer price. In the UK, company law provisions on DISCLOSURE OF SHAREHOLDINGS, requiring shareholders with more than 3% of the shares in a public company to declare such shareholdings to the directors of that company, have made it more difficult to mount a dawn raid. See TAKEOVER BID, CITY CODE ON TAKEOVERS AND MERGERS.

dawn raid

a situation in which a potential TAKEOVER bidder for a company buys a substantial shareholding in the target company at current market prices, often through intermediaries (to disguise the identity of the bidder). This shareholding can then be used as a platform for a full takeover bid for all the shares at a stated offer price. See TAKEOVER BID, CITY CODE.