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A new framework for foreign direct investments in the United Kingdom

Takeaways

  • The United Kingdom Government has adopted a CFIUS-style National Security and Investment Act (“the Act”).
  • The new law takes effect in later in 2021, but UK Government may look back at deals from November 2020 onward.
  • The Act is considered one of the most far-reaching systems in the world, carrying civil and criminal penalties for a failure to notify.
  • A notifiable acquisition completed without the approval of the Secretary of State is void (of no legal effect).
  • The UK Government has stated that it will work closely with investors to help ease the market into the new framework of investment rules.

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Continue Reading CFIUK Comes to Life: The National Security and Investment Act 2021

Key takeaways

→ The new National Security and Investment Bill expands the UK government’s powers to intercede in acquisitions of UK companies where it determines there is a potential national security threat.

→ The Bill creates a new government agency, the Investment Security Unit (ISU) to oversee foreign direct investment review, removing the power from the competition/antitrust regulator, the CMA.

→ Regulators will be able to “call in” transactions that were not notified but that the Secretary of State determines may pose a national security risk.

→ A mandatory notification will be introduced for certain sectors, including penalties for failure to notify, but the details of those requirements have not been completed.…
Continue Reading CFIUK: The United Kingdom Introduces a New Mechanism for Foreign Direct Investment Screening

Over the past few weeks, we have been speculating on the international trends and tides we expect to see in the next four years under a new U.S. presidential administration. So that you can enjoy our prognostications (before our program gets greenlighted as a Netflix special) we provide here:

  1. A recording of our webinar, entitled “The Four Years in International Business Webinar”
    (for those playing along at home, see if you can spot the part where Scott’s power goes out while we’re discussing tariff reductions!)
  1. A bulleted summary of the key takeaways of our webinar.

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Continue Reading The Next Four Years in International Business