Bruno Le Maire has perpetuated the threshold for triggering the control of foreign investments at the holding of 10% of the capital.
Faced with the American IRA (Inflation Reduction Act) anti-inflation plan and the expected return of Chinese investments, France is continuing its protectionist turn. While at the European level is negotiating in pain a response to the IRA, Paris has further strengthened, at the beginning of the year, its capacity to control acquisitions by foreign companies. After a series of controversies, the executive no longer wants to be accused of helplessly watching the takeover, one after the other, of French strategic nuggets by foreign, non-European investors. “We will strengthen the protection of our technologies and our companies. The threshold for triggering the control of foreign investments in France will be definitively set at 10% of equity participation, instead of 25”, thus assumed during his vows Bruno Le Maire.
The control threshold for listed companies had been lowered from 25% to 10% of the capital during the pandemic, in 2020. At the time, the government feared…