Marie-Claire Strawbridge recently spoke with Global Competition Review about the publication of the UK government’s second annual report on the enforcement of the National Security and Investment Act (NSIA), covering the period between April 2022 and March 2023. The NSIA empowers the UK government to “call in”, block or impose conditions on deals that fall within 17 markets of national importance.
When asked about the report, Marie-Claire suggested that it discloses additional details on the origin of investors across several metrics, which is “consistent with the promise of more transparency”. She also noted that the reported filings were significantly lower than the 1,000 to 1,800 initially expected during the original impact assessment of the legislation, and that the call-in rate is also much lower than expected, although that is consistent with the government’s narrative on putting forward a “light touch regime”.
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