Summary
The UK’s long-awaited National Security and Investment Act passed into law on 29 April 2021 when it received Royal Assent. Secondary legislation will follow and the regime is expected to be fully in force towards the end of the year. Here is what you need to know…
The National Security and Investment Act 2021:
The UK’s long-awaited National Security and Investment Act passed into law on 29 April 2021 when it received Royal Assent. Secondary legislation will follow and the regime is expected to be fully in force towards the end of the year. Although the Act is not live yet, investors should already be considering its possible impacts on deals because of the retrospective effect of the legislation, the Secretary of State’s broad powers under it to “call-in” non-notified transactions for review, and the sanctions for non-compliance (for more detail on this, see our earlier blog post UK National Security & Investment Bill introduces mandatory Government review of
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What UK s New Merger Controls Mean For Private Equity
Law360 (May 13, 2021, 4:36 PM EDT) On April 29, 2021, the United Kingdom s National Security and Investment Act received royal assent after rapidly progressing through U.K. Parliament. This much-publicized and long-awaited legislation establishes a new framework for the U.K. government to review so-called trigger events which include a wide variety of private equity investments and transactions on national security grounds.[1]
Parties to a subset of trigger events will be required to notify and obtain approval from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, or BEIS, before completing such trigger events.
Wednesday, May 5, 2021
The UK National Security and Investment Act 2021 (
Act) was given Royal Assent on 29 April 2021. When it comes into force later this year, it will give the UK government substantial powers to scrutinise a wide range of investments in the UK dating back to 12 November 2020 and to remedy any national security risks they raise.
A comprehensive, rigorous regime
The Act puts in place a new standalone regime that is significantly more rigorous than the previous public interest regime, which was linked to the UK merger control regime, applied only to mergers and acquisitions of businesses and resulted in only 12 interventions in its 17-year life.
Rebecca Le Flufy, Ross McNaughton and Adrian Toutoungi from Taylor Wessing LLP review the potential impacts of the UK’s National Security and Investment Bill on the life sciences industry and how it could influence future deals.
The National Security and Investment Bill was laid before Parliament by the UK Government on 11 November 2020. The Bill will establish a dual regime for transactions that could give rise to national security concerns. The dual regime will consist of both a mandatory notification regime for transactions in 17 sensitive sectors (at least three of which could catch transactions in the life sciences sector) and a voluntary regime coupled with a call-in power for the Government, allowing it to examine transactions which may give rise to national security concerns. Importantly, this call-in power will have retrospective application, meaning that once the Bill becomes law, the Government will be able to call-in transactions which completed from 12 November 2020 o
The advert, for Director General Q , said when it was released yesterday that MI6 has the ability to disrupt activity to promote the UK s interests . Pictured: The new version, with two commas added.