Large investors are rejecting the Dutch caretaker government’s proposal to allow a one-year ‘time out’ period before a takeover is completed.

‘It’s off-target and naive,’ said Rients Abma, chairman of Dutch corporate governance watchdog Eumedion in Monday’s Telegraaf

Abma said bourse-listed companies already have sufficient resources to protect themselves against foreign buyers.

The time-out, proposed by caretaker economic affairs minister Henk Kamp, has its supporters but has also met with a lot of flak. There is a backlash among several academics and thinkers who ridicule the idea and say it risks trashing the country’s reputation as a place to do business.

Later on Monday, Amsterdam companies court will put the time-out itself effectively on the stand when venture capital firm Elliott Capital will seek to force Amsterdam-based paints group AkzoNobel to remove Antony Burgmans as its supervisory board chairman.