By Joshua Ng
The UK’s National Security and Investment Act 2021 came into force on January 4, 2022. in the In the interests of national security, [1] the Act mandates for companies in specific areas of the economy to seek approval before proceeding with acquisitions. [2] In addition, the government may intervene in these mergers if necessary. [3] Finally, noncompliance with these regulations constitutes a criminal offence. [4] This article will briefly compare the economic areas regulated under this Act to similar merger control legislation in Singapore.
Economic Areas Regulated
The UK Act covers the following 17 industries: [5]
Advanced Materials
Advanced Robotics
Artificial Intelligence
Civil Nuclear
Communications
Computing Hardware
Critical Suppliers to Government
Cryptographic Authentication
Data Infrastructure
Defence
Energy
Military and Dual-Use
Quantum Technologies
Satellite and Space Technologies
Suppliers to the Emergency Services
Synthetic Biology
Transport
In Singapore, more stringent merger controls (because it is in the natural interest to do so) exist for the areas of licensed and regulatory postcard services, potable piped water, wastewater management systems, licensed and regulated bus services, licensed and regulated rail services and licensed and regulated cargo terminal operations. [6] We can therefore see that the UK Act primarily concerns rapidly-developing areas of the economy, whereas the Singapore regulations concern more traditional, infrastructure-related areas of the economy.
Evaluation
One might argue that the UK’s approach is riskier. Targeting developing areas of the economy to pre-empt a problematic acquisition (notwithstanding the stringency of the regulations) might unduly stifle necessary growth in these areas. Conversely, the Singapore approach targets well-established sectors, and is unlikely to have such a severe chilling effect. That said, the frequency with which government intervention occurs is what will ultimately guide the subsequent shift in risk calculus for affected companies, and the associated effect on sector growth. Until more information is available on how this legislation is applied in practice, the UK Act will likely result in (a) more contractual provisions such as representations and warranties being used to protect against regulatory breaches (for example, if a target company potentially has assets or operations in these economic areas) and (b) more compliance work for lawyers in affected areas.
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