On February 21, 2025, the US government issued the “America First Investment Policy” memorandum and accompanying fact sheet outlining the principles and objectives of the Trump administration’s investment policy. The memorandum focuses on the prioritization of investments from allies and partners, including those with “tremendous sovereign wealth funds,” and the particular threats posed by foreign adversaries, including China, Hong Kong, Macau, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia and the regime of Venezuelan politician Nicolás Maduro. The…
On July 8, 2024, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Investment Security announced a proposed rule that would expand the jurisdiction of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”) over transactions by foreign persons involving real estate in the United States. While CFIUS has jurisdiction over all acquisitions by foreign persons of US businesses, CFIUS also has authority to review acquisition of real estate unconnected with a US business where that real estate is…
On April 11, 2024, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Investment Security announced a proposed rule that would modify regulations governing the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”). The proposed rule represents the first substantive update to CFIUS’ mitigation and enforcement provisions since implementation of the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018, 50 U.S.C. § 4564 and follows CFIUS’ Enforcement Penalty Guidelines issued on October 22, 2022. Our previous blog…
On February 1, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit granted a limited preliminary injunction enjoining enforcement against two Chinese national plaintiffs of a new Florida law (SB-264) that restricts certain foreign persons from owning real property on grounds that the plaintiffs have a “substantial likelihood” of prevailing in their argument that federal foreign investment regulation pre-empts the state law. This litigation over the 2023 Florida law, which comes at a time…
On May 11, 2023, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”) issued a Frequently Asked Question (“FAQ”), which calls into question the use of “springing rights,” a broadly used instrument to expedite financings while complying with mandatory filing requirements. The FAQ addresses the timing for when a filing must be made for a transaction triggering a mandatory filing. Since implementation of the mandatory filing requirements, transaction parties have used springing or deferred…
On August 2, 2022, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS” or “the Committee”) released its annual report for calendar year 2021 (the “Annual Report”). The Annual Report provides data concerning transactions filed with CFIUS in 2021, the first full calendar year following the introduction of the implementing regulations for the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018 (“FIRRMA”). Reflecting the increasingly routine nature of CFIUS, investors from a broad range…
On July 28, 2020, the Department of the Treasury issued a final rule formally implementing filing fees for formal notices of transactions submitted to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”). CFIUS filing fees were previously established in an interim rule on April 29, 2020, and are assessed on a sliding scale between $0 and $300,000, depending on the value of the transaction. In addition, the final rule also narrows the definition…