Sullivan
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The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States ("CFIUS") is charged with the responsibility of reviewing potential risks to national security that may result from the consummation of foreign investments in the United States. The basic CFIUS mandate is to determine whether foreign entities exert a level of control over domestic investments in a manner that has the potential to create a national security risk.

There are few bright line tests, and whether a CFIUS filing is required is a fact specific analysis that requires a review of both the foreign parent and the target business. When our Sullivan team reviews a transaction for CFIUS risks we generally prepare a brief memo outlining (i) whether CFIUS has jurisdiction over the transaction and (ii) whether a CFIUS filing is required or, if not required, whether other national security risks are present in the transaction that would make a voluntary CFIUS filing advisable. The type of information that would be pertinent to our analysis is as follows:

  1. if a foreign government has an interest in the acquiring entity;
  2. the nature of the target company’s work and whether it is a government contractor;
  3. if the target company produces certain critical technologies, works with critical infrastructure or collects sensitive personal data; and
  4. the location of any real estate components of the acquisition (i.e., is it in close proximity to a sensitive governmental facility).

Our team has prepared several memos for clients to help analyze CFIUS risk. In the event a CFIUS filing is determined to be mandatory or advisable based on the red flags analysis, we can assist with the filing.