Key Takeaways From The Annual ACI CFIUS Conference

ACI held its annual CFIUS conference from April 27 to 28 in Washington, D.C., bringing together practitioners and government officials to discuss a range of CFIUS topics. On the government side, the two-day event involved significant participation by the Department of Defense (DoD), which was represented by officials on a majority of the panels. The following are the key takeaways.

1. China, China, China. DoD continues to focus on transactions where the foreign buyer is a Chinese entity. Chinese transactions are a priority for DoD's non-notified team when it searches for transactions that were not voluntarily filed with the Committee. In addition, DoD's mitigation team continues to find that Chinese transactions are difficult to mitigate. Although inbound investment from China is increasingly difficult, DoD made clear that at least some Chinese transactions continue to make it through the Committee without requiring a proxy agreement or voting trust.