Month / October 2018

by dietrichknauth

U.S. takes more direct oversight of foreign investment in tech

The U.S. government is planning to ramp up its scrutiny of foreign investment in national-security-sensitive businesses and technology, which could affect the way some private equity funds deal with foreign investors.

The 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, passed in August, expanded the jurisdiction of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to include a broader range of investments.

CFIUS, a multiagency body that includes representatives from the U.S. Departments of Defense, Treasury, Homeland Security, Commerce and others, has long had authority to review or block transactions that could lead a foreign buyer to acquire control of a business or location that could affect national security.

That mandate was often interpreted broadly by CFIUS, such as when it prevented a Chinese company from building wind farms near a U.S. Navy facility, but the new defense bill gives CFIUS even more authority, sweeping in investments that do not include “control” but enable foreign investors to access critical technology, critical infrastructure, or personal data.

“This is going to sweep a larger number of transactions into the ambit of CFIUS review, so it will be a challenge for investors,” said Priya Ayar, a partner at Wilkie Farr & Gallagher and a former acting general counsel of the Treasury Department.

Read the full story, as published by Buyouts: https://bit.ly/2YhNQK1

by dietrichknauth

TPG eyes disruptive opportunities in education, healthcare, dying malls

While plenty of investors are nervous about a potential market downturn, TPG’s James Coulter sees reason for hope in the rapid changes occurring across several parts of society.

Rapid change and big disruptions can provide opportunities for growth even through a market downturn. And TPG is focused on several sectors that are seeing shift away from industrialization and standardization, Coulter said at Buyouts Insider’s PartnerConnect West conference in early October.

“What we’re doing at TPG these days is basically looking at the world trying to  find change that we can identify, and find change that we can access,” Coulter said, giving as an example dying malls nationwide. “This is something you can despair about, or it’s something you can get pretty excited about, and we’ve decided to get excited about it at TPG. One of the great opportunities out there is to reprogram hundreds of millions of square feet.”

Read the full article, as published by Buyouts: https://bit.ly/2IQwgSx