The Ministry of the Economy said on Wednesday that it had controlled 275 foreign investments last year, against 216 in 2019, an increase due to the broadening of the scope of control of these operations.
Bercy, however, did not provide figures on the number of checks that resulted in a ban or conditional authorization.
Read also: Foreign investments should be encouraged but must be better supervised, according to the ESEC
Faced with the Covid-19 epidemic, France has adopted two measures, in coordination with other European countries.
"
The first was to extend the field of control to the biotechnology sector from April 2020, without any time limit
," we told Bercy.
The move came as the pandemic hit Europe head-on and unprecedented efforts were being made by the pharmaceutical industry and biotech start-ups to find vaccines.
Secondly in July, the threshold for triggering control for foreign investments was lowered from 25% to 10% of the shareholding when "they
are carried out by operators
outside
the European Union within listed companies
", details do we have the same source.
This second measure aims to "
protect companies whose shareholding is by nature dispersed
" and in which "
a minority stake can give the shareholder a decisive influence on the company and its sensitive activities
".
This lowering of the threshold is temporary and was originally scheduled to end on December 31, 2020, but has been extended for one year.
"
If there was a need for a new extension, we would study it in good time
," we still told Bercy.
With the health crisis, the ministry noted the "
weakening of certain companies in sensitive sectors
" but no general deterioration in the stock market.
The 2019 Pact Law, the implementing texts of which entered into force last year, extends the scope of prior authorizations for foreign investments initially limited to defense and dual technologies.
They now include everything related to data protection, as well as infrastructure (energy, transport, etc.) and research.
The controls concerned approximately 20% of the total foreign investments in 2020, the civil part among the controlled investments having gone from a third to more than half.
Outside the European Union, the United States is the main source of investment, followed by Canada and Switzerland.
Within the Union, the main supplier was the United Kingdom (which was still part of the single market in 2020), followed by Germany and Luxembourg.