New Delhi, June 19 (IANS) The regulatory landscape for mergers and acquisitions (M&As)should be made growth-oriented and corporate friendly by bringing in new provisions through changes in the Companies Bill and foreign investment policies, a leading industry lobby says.

"Motivation and successful accomplishment of the complex mergers and acquisitions process in today's times needs enabling steps from the government and regulators as well as the strategies followed by consolidating corporates," said Chandrajit Banerjee, director general of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

"Government needs to bring in facilitative provisions through changes in the Companies Bill, combinations regulations, takeover code and foreign investment policy," he said in a statement.

CII said that recently announced changes in merger guidelines was a welcome move but some concerns remained in the existing laws.

"There is an uncertainty regarding the timelines for the approval process for which the concept of 'deemed approval' needs to be introduced in line with almost all international jurisdictions. Inter-group mergers or amalgamations should be exempted from notification requirement," Banerjee said.

"There is a need for alignment of the requirements of the Combinations Regulations with the provisions of the SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) takeover code," he added.

Another impediment towards mergers and acquisitions was the restriction on the number of step-down subsidiaries, Banerjee said.