Tag: NS&I regime

Britain’s government is trying to protect national security

Posted on

Without throttling investment that will be tricky

On January 4h a new investment-screening law came into effect, heralded by the government as “the biggest shake-up of the uk’s national-security regime for 20 years”. That is no exaggeration. It marks a shift away from economic openness towards suspicion and intervention. Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, said it would show members of the public that “their security remains our number one priority”. What could go wrong?

The government is seeking to stop assets vital to national security falling into hostile hands. A report in 2017 warned that “ownership or control of critical businesses or infrastructure could provide opportunities to undertake espionage, sabotage or exert inappropriate leverage”. The context is concern about Chinese investment, and pressure to fall into line with allied countries such as America, Australia and Germany that have already tightened up.

Becket McGrath had the pleasure of discussing the UK’s new National Security and Investment Act with The Economist. “Just over a week in to the scheme, it’s a relief to see that the Government’s notification platform is working and the Investment Screening Unit is doing a good job at processing filings quickly […]. The really interesting thing now will be to see which deals get called in for more detailed review”.

Clicl here to read the article (subscribers only).

Taking Security and Options Seriously: the UK and German Investment Screening Regimes

Posted on

Arrangements involving current and potential future events, such as taking security and agreeing options, require careful scrutiny under investment screening regimes. It is not safe to assume that a trigger will operate in the same way as under another more developed regulatory regime, such as merger control. Moreover, taking a security or agreeing an option needs to be considered upfront and not just when the security is about to be enforced or the option exercised.

In this piece we consider the position under the UK’s forthcoming National Security & Investment Act (NSI Act) regime and briefly compare this to the position under the recently reformed German regime. We assume that the other requirements for triggering are satisfied and focus on whether a security or an option could in itself take the transaction over the jurisdictional threshold.

Taking security

When a security is actually enforced, then this may well trigger an investment screening regime, as enforcement will typically involve the lender gaining control over the relevant target or its assets which are the subject of the security. The more difficult question, which will likely arise many years earlier at the initial transaction stage, is whether merely taking the security is sufficient.

To download and read the full paper, click here.