French Translation of a Tender Offer Agreement in the Context of a Public Takeover Bid (OPA)

We were recently engaged to translate from English into French a tender offer agreement concluded as part of a public takeover bid (offre publique d’acquisition – OPA) for a French industrial company specializing in high-precision measurement technologies.

OPA: A Highly Regulated Legal and Financial Exercise

This type of agreement forms part of a voluntary takeover bid for listed securities, governed by the General Regulations of the French Financial Markets Authority (Autorité des marchés financiers – AMF).

The contract covered:

• the terms of the offer,

• the description of the securities tendered,

• the treatment of treasury shares (actions auto-détenues),

• free shares still within their acquisition period,

• and the coordination of regulatory filings (offer prospectus and response prospectus).

A Technical Translation at the Core of French Securities Law

Our task was to adapt Anglo-American financial law terminology to the French legal framework, ensuring both accuracy and regulatory clarity.

We also ensured terminological consistency across the contractual annexes and the regulatory documents submitted to the AMF (offeror and target prospectuses, public announcements, etc.).

📌 Key Terms Encountered in this Project (contextual translations)

• company shares → actions auto-détenues

• free shares → actions gratuites

• share purchase agreement → convention de cession d’actions

• general regulations of the AMF → règlement général de l’AMF

• contributed shares → actions apportées

• offer prospectus → note d’information

• target prospectus → note d’information en réponse

• public announcement → communiqué