Summary
The new National Security and Investment Bill, which aims to provide the Government with the necessary powers to scrutinise and intervene in business transactions to protect national security, will introduce a mandatory notification regime across 17 sectors in the UK economy. Although the Bill provides a carve-out for rights exercisable by administrators, insolvency practitioners will still need to be mindful of the risks that the Bill may have on distressed M&A transactions, which may be rendered void if captured by the regime and the notification requirements not complied with.
The regime
The new regime, which is currently still going through the House of Lords but scheduled to be enacted in Spring 2021, would then take retrospective effect from 12 November 2020 and is far more wide-reaching than anticipated. The regime: