2023-07-05 17:09:07
spain strengthens the armor companies considered strategic born with the coronavirus with new legislation on foreign investment. In March 2020, as a result of the pandemic, the Government launched the so-called anti-opa shield to provide itself with a kind of gold stock in the acquisition of large companies by non-community companies. That measure, of permanent character since then, it is now developed through a royal decree approved on Tuesday by the Council of Ministers that specifies the sector catalog subject to authorization for entry into Spain y cut resolution times in half, six to three months.
The rule, published this Wednesday in the BOE and which will come into force on next September 1es independent on the other, also approved as a result of the covid, which affects investments in Spain by community countries and which, in this case, does have temporary validity, until 2024. Thus, the new royal decree maintains the need to obtain prior administrative authorization for direct investments in Spain by residents in third countries –also collective investment schemes y employment pension funds of the European Union or the European Free Trade Association– that carry out a investment equal to or greater than 10% of the capital in a Spanish company commonly called strategic sectors. This control does not include foreign shareholding increases who already have more than 10% of a company and increase their participation without reaching control.
As for the fields of application the themselves Until now –energy, transportation, water, health, communications, the media, data processing or storage, aerospace, defense, electoral or financial, Artificial Intelligence, robotics or microchips– but some are added exemptions to the original standard. In this sense, one of the most limited sectors is the energy by exempting from prior authorization those purchases that do not affect the regulated business of a company, when the company resulting from the operation does not acquire the status of dominant operator or in the case of acquisitions of small trading companies, with less than 20,000 customers.
In addition, it is added that when the foreign investment involves the purchase of production parks electric power, For example, it could be the case of the entry of a non-EU company into a eolico Park photovoltaics in this countryauthorization will only be required if they exceed 5% of the quota of installed power of a particular technology. Installed capacity is understood to be that which is obtained as the quotient between the installed power in the hands of the investor –this includes all the investor’s production assets at the time of application as well as those that may be acquired– and the national generation park always for technology.
“Electricity production assets must be weighted according to by virtue of the degree of maturity and execution of the projects associated investment, taking into account their state of administrative processing”, says the text, which adds that the calculation of the quota of installed capacity “will be carried out taking into account the time horizons and renewable integration objectives provided for in the energy planning instrument that is in force at the time of the request for authorization of foreign investment”.
The acquisitions of companies with income below 5 million euros in the previous year, unless they are operators using Radioelectric spectrum or related to mineral deposits. and the investments of real estate acquisition that are not related to any critical infrastructure and temporary investments, that is, of a short duration (hours or days) in which the investor does not have the capacity to influence the management of the acquired company. It will be the final investors who, where appropriate, need authorization.
The approval of this standard was necessary to adapt Spanish regulations to the community after the commissioning of the investment control regulation of the european union in October 2020 that establishes a framework for the control mechanism of foreign investments from outside the EU in the Member States for reasons of security and public order, according to sources from the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism.
And with it what is called Foreign Investment Board what will he be collegiate body to report on this matter and that will be made up of a presidency in charge of the head of the General Directorate of International Trade and Investment; as members there will be a representative of the National Intelligence Center (CNI)a representative of the Operational Directorate of the Department of National Security of the Presidency of the Government and a representative “of each Ministry with a minimum rank of Deputy Director General or assimilated”, as well as a Secretariat in charge of the head of the General Subdirectorate of Foreign Investments or person who replaces him with a minimum level of Deputy Director General or assimilated.
In order to monitor its execution, “no later than the March 31 of each year“, the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism will publish a annual report that covers the previous “calendar” year which will include aggregate information on foreign direct investments made in the territory and on the application of control mechanisms over them, as well as “on the requests received from other Member States”.
#Wind #farms #Spain #strengthens #control #purchases #countries #strategic #companies