July 10, 2023
Foreign Investments: Multi-jurisdiction Guide
The DLA Piper Global Foreign Direct Investment team just released a 2023 edition of their Multi-jurisdiction Guide for Screening Foreign Investments. The intro to the guide explains that screening activities have expanded in many jurisdictions to cover considerations related to cybersecurity, consumer protection, data privacy, supply chain and strategic sectors, and governments are increasingly willing to intervene in offshore transactions on the basis of domestic impacts that are more indirect or limited. It gives the following examples:
The interagency Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has intensified its scrutiny of proposed transactions. The CFIUS has also expanded its retrospective reviews of consummated transactions in potentially sensitive sectors where the parties had not submitted a notification or declaration. The U.K. National Security and Investment Act 2021 (NSIA) took effect in January 2022, establishing new requirements for mandatory notification to the Investment Security Unit within the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) for certain acquisitions resulting in equity interests over 25% or material influence over businesses active in 17 specified sensitive sectors. In 2022 Canada also introduced a new National Security Review of Investments Modernization Act, which can substantially strengthen the existing national security review. And in the EU, Romania introduced its FDI regime in 2022 and new or enhanced regimes are expected in Belgium, Slovakia, Netherlands, Ireland, Estonia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden in 2023.
The interactive guide reviews developments in foreign investment screening practices in 35 jurisdictions across the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia.
– Meredith Ervine