The Foreign Investment Regime continues to be the centre of
attention. The reform package is currently before the Federal
Parliament and is expected to commence 1 December. The package is
very much about the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
THE GOOD
A lot of the publicity has been about strengthening the regime
with fees and penalties, however, the reform package does provide a
range of practical benefits and delivers some fixes to longstanding
issues.
Most welcome is the increase in the substantial interest
threshold from 15% to 20% across the board. The definitions of
foreign person and foreign government investor are impacted with
the result that fewer entities will be captured by the regime. The
change in the substantial interest threshold sensibly (and finally)
matches up with the Corporations Act takeovers threshold.
