Tuesday January 9 2018
News Source: Global Disclosures
Focus: Foreign Investment
Type: General
Country: Australia
Foreign persons are required to notify and receive a no objections notification where their proposed acquisition exceeds the relevant monetary screening threshold, unless they are exempt.
One of the tests in determining whether an action is a significant action under the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act 2015 is whether the monetary screening threshold test is met.
Monetary screening thresholds are met when either the amount paid for an interest or the value of an entity or asset exceeds the threshold amount, depending on the type of action. The exception is for agricultural land, where the test is cumulative (except in relation to certain free trade agreement (FTA) partners’ investors).
Monetary screening thresholds are indexed annually on 1 January using the GDP implicit price deflator (except for the $15 million agricultural land threshold and the $50 million land threshold for investors from Thailand, which are not indexed).
The monetary thresholds in the table below were indexed on 1 January 2018.
| Non-land proposals | ||
| Investor | Action | Threshold – more than: |
| From FTA partner countries that have the higher threshold(a) | Acquisitions in non-sensitive businesses | $1,134 million |
| Acquisitions in sensitive businesses | $261 million | |
| Media sector | $0 | |
| Agribusinesses | For Chile, New Zealand and United States, $1,134 million. | |
| For China, Japan, Korea and Singapore, $57 million (based on the value of the consideration for the acquisition and the total value of other interests held by the foreign person [with associates] in the entity) | ||
| Other investors | Business acquisitions (all sectors) | $261 million |
| Media sector | $0 | |
| Agribusinesses | $57 million (based on the value of the consideration for the acquisition and the total value of other interests held by the foreign person [with associates] in the entity) | |
| Foreign government investors | All direct interests in an Australian entity or Australian business | $0 |
| Starting a new Australian business | $0 | |
| Land proposals | ||
| Investor | Action | Threshold – more than: |
| All investors | Residential land | $0 |
| Privately owned investors from FTA partner countries that have the higher threshold(a) | Agricultural land | For Chile, New Zealand and United States, $1,134 million |
| For China, Japan, Korea and Singapore, $15 million (cumulative) | ||
| Vacant commercial land | $0 | |
| Developed commercial land | $1,134 million | |
| Mining and production tenements | For Chile, New Zealand and United States, $1,134 million | |
| Others, $0 | ||
| Privately owned investors from non-FTA countries and FTA countries that do not have the higher threshold | Agricultural land | For Thailand, where land is used wholly and exclusively for a primary production business $50 million (otherwise the land is not agricultural land) |
| Others $15 million (cumulative) | ||
| Vacant commercial land | $0 | |
| Developed commercial land | $261 million | |
| Low threshold land (sensitive land)3, $57 million | ||
| Mining and production tenements | $0 | |
| Foreign government investors | Any interest in land | $0 |
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