These days, Bercy still intends to keep an eye on the equity investments in French companies from foreign investors.
This Friday evening, the Ministry of Finance will announce that it is extending for one year - until December 31, 2021, therefore - the decree strengthening the control of foreign investments.
"
We must guarantee the protection of our strategic companies",
insists Bruno Le Maire.
Read also: The French army secures a tech nugget coveted by the CIA
After a first drop at the beginning of the year, the threshold for controlling investors taking shares in French companies had fallen from 25% to 10%, for companies
"carrying out sensitive activities"
and listed on the stock exchange.
Opportunistic equity investments
In other words, Paris retains for one more year the possibility of blocking acquisitions of more than 10% of the capital of companies acting in certain sectors, such as defense, energy, aerospace, transport or biotechnology.
Bercy notes that
“some of these companies, carrying out activities presenting issues of public order and security or national defense, may indeed be weakened by the crisis and be the subject of opportunistic minority shareholdings, thus weighing on a risk to national security
”.
Read also: Electric batteries: China in maneuver to impose its own standards on the world
In concrete terms, any non-European investor wishing to cross the 10% threshold must notify the General Directorate of the Treasury, which will then have 10 days to decide whether the transaction should be subjected to a more in-depth examination.
"Such an examination can lead to refusal,"
assumes Bercy.
This protection has been put in place by several of our neighbors (Germany, Great Britain, etc.).
