The Rise of Foreign Investment Control – A Global Snapshot on the State of Play of More Industrial Policy Enforcement

Over the past three years, many countries have introduced new rules or strengthened existing foreign investment regimes, widening the range of sectors to which they apply. This is a trend exacerbated by COVID-19, which saw an additional proliferation of rules focused on the protection of pandemic-related supply chains and avoiding any opportunistic exploitation of depressed company valuations. This new environment has translated into a higher degree of intervention, with many jurisdictions requiring approval even for non-controlling minority shareholdings. Notification numbers have spiked globally, adding uncertainty and complexity to transactions. Separately, several countries also allow foreign investment review authorities to call in transactions over which they have jurisdiction even if a filing was not required. In this article, we look at the latest developments and their implications across a number of key jurisdictions globally.

By Christian Ahlborn & Christoph Barth¹

I. INTRODUCTION

The current foreign investment landscape is highly dynamic. In this article, we look at the latest developments and their implications across a number of key jurisdictions globally.

Over the past three years, many countries have introduced new rules or strengthened existing foreign investment regimes, widening the range of sectors and types of transactions to which they apply. Historically, the the focus of foreign investment control used to be on defence and core security-rel