AUSTRALIA: Updated Australia FIRB Foreign Investment Policy

Monday March 11 2013

The Foreign Investment Review Board has published the updated Australia Foreign Investment Policy. The updated policy reflects changes to investment thresholds in line with indexation, and includes the new thresholds applicable to New Zealand investors. Some changes have also been made as regards foreign government investors, as regards the following:

• Enforcement of securitiy interests – for APRA-regulated foreign government invested banks, where security interests are created under ordinary course lending agreements, FIRB approval under the Policy is now only required to enforce a security interest if they gain control over an asset and retain it for more than 12 months.
• Consortium investments – clarification on thresholds applicable when there are multiple government investors
• Notification of investments preparatory to a takeover bid now includes acquisitions of less than 10% where the investor is building a strategic stake

Click on the above link for the updated Policy.