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To embed, copy and paste the code into your website or blog: On January 22, 2021, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy has published the anticipated draft revision of the German Foreign Trade and Payments Ordinance to align the scope of review more closely with the EU Screening Regulation. The Ministry launched a consultation process the same day and is giving the associations and companies potentially affected the opportunity to discuss their views and propose further revisions. Following a number of revisions of the German foreign direct investment rules throughout 2020 (including a COVID-19-related broadening of the scope of review, the introduction of a standstill obligation outside of defense deals, and criminal sanctions for non-compliance), the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy ( ....
(only available in German). For M&A transactions involving German target companies directly or indirectly via the acquisition of a foreign group, the draft contains some good and bad news: Future deals will be made more difficult by the fact that the catalogue of companies whose acquisition is subject to notification will be significantly expanded once again. Moreover, in addition to the acquisition of voting rights, the acquisition of control and management rights can now, for the first time, also trigger a notification or an ex officio review. Furthermore, the draft confirms that share increases beyond existing stake-holdings are subject to foreign investment control, even if the thresholds were already exceeded before the transaction. ....