Open offer
Regulation & taxThe offer an acquirer must make to public shareholders on crossing the shareholding thresholds prescribed in the takeover regulations, or on acquiring control, at a price computed under those regulations, unless an exemption applies.
In plain terms
It is for a stated proportion of the shares rather than all of them, so it is not a floor under your whole holding. Where the computed price lands above the market the price tends to sit just under it and the daily range flattens; where it lands below, almost nobody tenders and the chart is unaffected.
Letter of offer
Regulation & taxThe document dispatched to shareholders in an open offer or a tender-route buyback, setting out the price, the size of the offer, the dates of the tendering window and the offeror’s stated intentions, after the regulator has commented on the draft.
In plain terms
The one document in the sequence written for you rather than for the exchange, and the only place several of those things are stated. It goes to the address on your depository record, which is a reason to keep that record current.
Acquirer
Regulation & taxUnder the takeover regulations, the person who acquires or agrees to acquire shares, voting rights or control in a target company — assessed together with the persons acting in concert with them.
In plain terms
The word is defined so that it catches a group rather than only a name on a contract. Which is why the obligation to make an open offer can fall on a set of related entities, none of which crossed a threshold on its own.