The COVID-19 pandemic has created market conditions ripe for increased cross border investment as businesses scramble for capital and investors target distressed assets. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) is focused on the trend. Senior Department of Defense officials have recently and repeatedly stressed the need for the active use of CFIUS reviews to protect against “adversarial capital coming into our markets for nefarious means” during the current economic crisis. Against this backdrop, U.S. businesses and foreign investors must be mindful of the CFIUS implications of acquisitions and financing transactions (including the exercise of creditors’ rights with respect to distressed companies). The attached memorandum explores these issues and available approaches to mitigating them.
Please click here to read the full alert memorandum.