Mergers and acquisitions regulations in Chile fundamentally concern corporations (sociedades anónimas), although a variety of companies also may be merged and acquired under well-recognized principles of freedom in Chilean laws. Needless to say, regulations are far stricter where an open corporation or a company operating in a regulated industry is involved. In this line, for instance, applicable regulations do not allow the direct acquisition of the control of an open corporation - with certain exceptions - but impose on the interested party the obligation to conduct a public tender offer.
Notwithstanding that mergers and acquisitions requires an experienced corporate counsel to head the process, it should be noted that a potential acquirer is forced to receive advice from a legal team which includes tax, regulatory, and antitrust specialists, among others, not only by reason of standard due diligence of the target company, but also because the definition of the legal structure to be followed for the acquisition may critically depend on tax, regulatory, and antitrust considerations. Furthermore, and under recent major amendments of the Competition Act to come into force by June 2017, both a mandatory pre-merger notification system and new substantive standards for evaluating mergers have been introduced, which will have to be taken into account in order to ensure a successful acquisition.