The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission today voted to publish for comment rule proposals concerning the best-price rule on tender offers, and the process whereby a foreign private issuer can terminate reporting requirements.

The commission voted to propose revisions to the best-price tender offer rules that would reinforce the original premise of the rule – ensuring that all shareholders who tender their securities in an offer are paid the same consideration. The proposed revisions also would allow bidders and target companies to proceed with a tender offer with greater certainty as to the manner in which the best-price rule will be applied to employment and severance arrangements.

It also proposed rule changes for foreign private issuers. Under current rules, a foreign private issuer may exit the registration and reporting regime if the class of the issuer’s securities has less than 300 shareholders who are U.S. residents.

The new rule would allow a foreign private issuer to terminate its registration and reporting requirements as long as the issuer meets specified criteria designed to measure U.S. market interest for that class of securities; that test depends primarily on whether the issuer is a well-known seasoned issuer, or not.

Finally, the commission also adopted rules concerning acceleration of filing deadlines for periodic reports required under securities rules.