{"id":2759,"date":"2017-09-26T10:00:49","date_gmt":"2017-09-26T08:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/honert.de\/?p=2759\/"},"modified":"2017-10-02T16:38:40","modified_gmt":"2017-10-02T14:38:40","slug":"stricter-rules-for-the-review-of-foreign-investments-in-germany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/honert.de\/en\/stricter-rules-for-the-review-of-foreign-investments-in-germany\/","title":{"rendered":"STRICTER RULES FOR THE REVIEW OF FOREIGN INVESTMENTS IN GERMANY"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-av_section-1c5bd4b3b892a8284c2343f49a286280\">\n.avia-section.av-av_section-1c5bd4b3b892a8284c2343f49a286280{\nbackground-repeat:no-repeat;\nbackground-image:url(https:\/\/honert.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/3629.jpg);\nbackground-position:0% 0%;\nbackground-attachment:scroll;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div id='av_section_1'  class='avia-section av-av_section-1c5bd4b3b892a8284c2343f49a286280 main_color avia-section-default avia-no-shadow  avia-builder-el-0  el_before_av_section  avia-builder-el-first  avia-full-stretch avia-bg-style-scroll av-minimum-height av-minimum-height-40 av-height-40  container_wrap sidebar_right'  data-section-bg-repeat='stretch' data-av_minimum_height_pc='40' data-av_min_height_opt='40'><div class='container av-section-cont-open' ><main  role=\"main\" itemprop=\"mainContentOfPage\"  class='template-page content  av-content-small alpha units'><div class='post-entry post-entry-type-page post-entry-2759'><div class='entry-content-wrapper clearfix'>\n<\/div><\/div><\/main><!-- close content main element --><\/div><\/div><div id='av_section_2'  class='avia-section av-av_section-d18d8c2c81d10022ebd21ffa95322c35 main_color avia-section-default avia-no-shadow  avia-builder-el-1  el_after_av_section  avia-builder-el-last  avia-bg-style-scroll container_wrap sidebar_right'  ><div class='container av-section-cont-open' ><div class='template-page content  av-content-small alpha units'><div class='post-entry post-entry-type-page post-entry-2759'><div class='entry-content-wrapper clearfix'>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-av_two_third-9497bbf8bff73ea4c6992cc17fa9ec36\">\n.flex_column.av-av_two_third-9497bbf8bff73ea4c6992cc17fa9ec36{\nborder-radius:0px 0px 0px 0px;\npadding:0px 0px 0px 0px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='flex_column av-av_two_third-9497bbf8bff73ea4c6992cc17fa9ec36 av_two_third  avia-builder-el-2  el_before_av_two_third  avia-builder-el-first  first flex_column_div av-zero-column-padding  '     ><style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-av_heading-358ceae22a3678f9c1032c342ec7bd36\">\n#top .av-special-heading.av-av_heading-358ceae22a3678f9c1032c342ec7bd36{\npadding-bottom:10px;\n}\nbody .av-special-heading.av-av_heading-358ceae22a3678f9c1032c342ec7bd36 .av-special-heading-tag .heading-char{\nfont-size:25px;\n}\n.av-special-heading.av-av_heading-358ceae22a3678f9c1032c342ec7bd36 .av-subheading{\nfont-size:15px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='av-special-heading av-av_heading-358ceae22a3678f9c1032c342ec7bd36 av-special-heading-h1 blockquote modern-quote  avia-builder-el-3  avia-builder-el-no-sibling '><div class='av-subheading av-subheading_above'>26. September 2017\n<\/div><h1 class='av-special-heading-tag '  itemprop=\"headline\"  >STRICTER RULES FOR THE REVIEW OF FOREIGN INVESTMENTS IN GERMANY<\/h1><div class=\"special-heading-border\"><div class=\"special-heading-inner-border\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-av_two_third-9497bbf8bff73ea4c6992cc17fa9ec36\">\n.flex_column.av-av_two_third-9497bbf8bff73ea4c6992cc17fa9ec36{\nborder-radius:0px 0px 0px 0px;\npadding:0px 0px 0px 0px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='flex_column av-av_two_third-9497bbf8bff73ea4c6992cc17fa9ec36 av_two_third  avia-builder-el-4  el_after_av_two_third  el_before_av_two_third  first flex_column_div av-zero-column-padding  column-top-margin'     ><section  class='av_textblock_section av-av_textblock-35972167d9f102c5ddaec0c531c98b9e '   itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/BlogPosting\" itemprop=\"blogPost\" ><div class='avia_textblock'  itemprop=\"text\" ><p><strong>The German Federal Government has enacted stricter rules for the review of foreign investments in Germany with effect as of 18 July 2017. The review criteria remain for the time being whether or not a foreign investment endangers the national security or the public security and order of the Federal Republic of Germany. The interpretation of these vague legal concepts, however, is subject to changes over the course of time and further technical developments. The increase in direct investments in technology companies in Germany driven by supposedly foreign states as well as cyber-attacks against civil and safety-related sectors in Germany have particularly shifted different industries and companies into the focus of the German Foreign Trade Ordinance\/Foreign Trade Law. The Federal Government has now substantiated and expanded the industries and companies which may be subject to an investment review. In the future, further changes are to be expected: The European commission submitted the draft for a regulation for the (first) introduction of a European framework for screening of foreign investments in Europe on 13 September 2017.<\/strong><!--more--><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-av_two_third-9497bbf8bff73ea4c6992cc17fa9ec36\">\n.flex_column.av-av_two_third-9497bbf8bff73ea4c6992cc17fa9ec36{\nborder-radius:0px 0px 0px 0px;\npadding:0px 0px 0px 0px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='flex_column av-av_two_third-9497bbf8bff73ea4c6992cc17fa9ec36 av_two_third  avia-builder-el-6  el_after_av_two_third  el_before_av_one_third  first flex_column_div av-zero-column-padding  column-top-margin'     ><section  class='av_textblock_section av-av_textblock-35972167d9f102c5ddaec0c531c98b9e '   itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/BlogPosting\" itemprop=\"blogPost\" ><div class='avia_textblock'  itemprop=\"text\" ><h2>I. Overview of the substantial changes in German law<\/h2>\n<h5>1. Preliminary note<\/h5>\n<p>The regulations on review of foreign investments in German companies are still predominantly to be found under \u00a7\u00a7 2, 4, 5 and 15 of the German Foreign Trade and Payment Law (Au\u00dfenwirtschaftsgesetz, \u201c<span class=\"bold-lowercase\">AWG<\/span>\u201d) as well as under \u00a7\u00a7 55 to 62 of the German Foreign Trade Ordinance (Au\u00dfenwirtschaftsverordnung, \u201c<span class=\"bold-lowercase\">AWV<\/span>\u201d). The threshold for review of foreign investments remains at 25 percent of the voting rights (directly or indirectly) in the target company. Those who participate in a foreign investment should, however, keep in mind that the threshold may also be relevant e.g. for acquisitions through mergers, contributions of existing companies into joint ventures or asset deals (in any case with respect to an acquisition of 25 percent of all assets of a target). The substantial changes brought by the ninth amendment ordinance to the AWV are briefly described below:<\/p>\n<h5>2.Expansion of the material scope (target company)<\/h5>\n<h5>2.1 Defense and security sector<\/h5>\n<p>The material scope of investment reviews in companies active in the defense and security sector (see \u00a7 60 AWV) was expanded particularly to such companies which manufacture or develop goods or necessary equipment for sensor technology, reconnaissance or electronic warfare. These may include e.g. manufacturers or developers of encryption systems, identification systems, cameras or infrared and thermal image equipment.<\/p>\n<h5>2.2 Civil sector &#8211; general<\/h5>\n<p>For the civil sector an exemplary and non-exhaustive list of companies was established in \u00a7 55 AWV, which are considered significant for the public security and order can fall within the material scope of the investment review. Those companies are particularly operators of so-called \u201ccritical infrastructures\u201d as well as software developers or processors for their operation, cloud computing provider as of a certain size, and certain companies in the areas of telecommunications (\u00a7 55 AWV refers to \u00a7 110 German Telecommunications Act) or telematics infrastructure (\u00a7 55 AWV refers in this regard to companies with approvals according to \u00a7 291 para. 1a or 1e German Social Security Code SGB Volume V).<\/p>\n<h5>2.3 Civil sector \u2013 critical infrastructure<\/h5>\n<p>Which facilities are to be considered \u201ecritical infrastructures\u201c is further defined under \u00a7\u00a7 2 para. 10, 10 para. 1 sentence 1 of the Act on the Federal Office for Information Security (\u201c<span class=\"bold-lowercase\">BSI law<\/span>\u201c) and the ordinance (passed on the basis of the previous law) for identifying critical infrastructures (\u201c<span class=\"bold-lowercase\">BSI CritisO<\/span>\u201c). Critical Infrastructure includes pursuant to \u00a7 2 para. 10 BSI law \u201c<em>establishments, facilities and parts of it, which firstly, belong to the sectors energy, information technology and telecommunication, transport, health, nutrition, as well as finance and insurance and secondly, are of high importance for the functioning of the community, as considerable supply shortages or threats to the public security would occur as a reason of their absence or their impairment.<\/em>\u201c The BSI CritisO as amended by the first amendment ordinance dated 21 June 2017 substantiates the facilities and other related services of different sectors which are considered to be critical infrastructures. The following is a brief extract and overview:<\/p>\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"151\"><span class=\"bold-lowercase\">Sector<\/span><\/td>\n<td width=\"415\"><span class=\"bold-lowercase\">In accordance with more detailed provisions of the BSI CritisO, critical infrastructures can e.g. be<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"151\">Energy<\/td>\n<td width=\"415\">Electricity-generating plants with an installed net nominal capacity (electrical) of 420 MW or a petrol station network with an output of 420,000 tons per annum<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"151\">Water<\/td>\n<td width=\"415\">Waste water facilities for more than 500,000 residents or water treatment plants for at least 22 million m\u00b3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"151\">Nutrition<\/td>\n<td width=\"415\">Facilities with an annual production of 434,500 tons of food or 350 million liters of beverages<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"151\">Information technology and communication<\/td>\n<td width=\"415\">IT hosting with a server farm of an annual average of 25,000 running instances<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"151\">Transport<\/td>\n<td width=\"415\">Facilities or systems for passenger handling on airfields for 20,000,000 passengers annually or facilities or systems for operating a logistics center in the logistics segments of bulk cargo, general cargo, contract, sea and air freight with a quantity of goods of at least 17,000,000 tons per annum<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"151\">Healt<\/td>\n<td width=\"415\">Hospitals with a number of stationary cases of 30,000 per annum or production plants for certain pharmaceuticals with an annual turnover of approx. EUR 90.68 million<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"151\">Finance and insurance<\/td>\n<td width=\"415\">Operators of settlement or clearing systems for the cash supply with at least 18,000,000 transaction annually or operators of contract management and payment systems of statutory health and nursing care insurance for at least 3,000,000 insured persons<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<\/table>\n<p>In addition, the BSI provides further assistance on its <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bsi.bund.de\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">homepage<\/a> in the form of \u201cfrequently asked questions\u201d (\u201c<span class=\"bold-lowercase\">FAQ<\/span>\u201d) for the interpretation of the BSI CritisO.<\/p>\n<h5>3. Clarification on investors which are subject to an investment review<\/h5>\n<p>In principal, only investments by \u2013 simplified \u2013 \u201eforeigners\u201c are subject to an investment screening. In the defense sector, still each investment by non-German investors may be subject to a review. In the civil sector, in principle only investments by an investor who is neither located in the (customs) area of the European Union (\u201c<span class=\"bold-lowercase\">EU<\/span>\u201d), nor \u2013 and this has now been clarified \u2013 in the area of the European Free Trade Association (\u201c<span class=\"bold-lowercase\">EFTA<\/span>\u201d) (\u00a7 55 para. 2 sentence 5 AWV) may be subject to a review. However, in order to prevent a circumvention, it was clarified for all sectors that e.g. with respect to pure special purpose vehicles (no other business than the investment in the target) not its seat but the origin of its (ultimate) shareholders is decisive so that also investments by \u2013 again simplified \u2013 \u201cresidents\u201d may be subject to a review (anti-circumvention provision pursuant to \u00a7\u00a755 para. 2 sentence 2, 60 para. 1 sentences 2ff. AWV).<\/p>\n<h5>4. Reporting obligation<\/h5>\n<p>The foreign investment in a company in the civil sector now also has to be notified (\u00a7 55 para. 4 AWV). The extension of the mandatory notification also to the civil sector, however, did not change the so far applying legal concepts under public and civil law. Under public law foreign investments in the civil sector are still permitted in general unless prohibited which translates to the civil law concept of the acquisition agreement being (i) valid and (ii) subject to the condition subsequent of a prohibition of the investment (\u00a7 15 para. 2 AWG). In contrast thereto, investments in companies in the defense sector are still prohibited unless approved meaning that the respective acquisition agreement under civil law\u00a0\u00a0 is provisionally invalid (in other words: its legal validity is suspended) and will become valid only upon approval with retrospective effect from the date of its execution (\u00a7 15 para. 3 AWG).<\/p>\n<h5>5. Review procedure<\/h5>\n<p>The deadline for the screening or the (deemed) approval of a foreign investment in a company in the defense or security sector was extended from 1 to 3 months (\u00a7\u00a7 61, 62 AWV). The deadline for the prohibition of an investment in a company in the civil sector upon initiating an investment review was now increased from 2 to 4 months as of receipt of the complete documentation. A binding certificate of non-objection shall be deemed granted henceforth only 2 months after submission of the application (previously 1 month), provided that no review procedure was initiated. A graphical overview of the process can be found <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bmwi.de\/Redaktion\/DE\/Artikel\/Aussenwirtschaft\/investitionspruefung.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a>.<br \/>\nUnder consideration of the above changes it may take more than 3 or 4 months in the event of opening of a review procedure until there is certainty about the approval or the prohibition of an investment.<br \/>\nIn addition it was clarified for investments in companies in all sectors that the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (\u201c<span class=\"bold-lowercase\">BMWiE<\/span>\u201c) can hold negotiations with the parties involved in an investment under review on the amendment of the acquisition documentation as to the BMWiE\u2019s concerns, but that during that time the lapse of the respective review deadline is suspended.<\/p>\n<h5>6. Expected number of cases per annum<\/h5>\n<p>As a result of the expansion of the scope of the investment review and the introduction of the mandatory notification of investments in the civil sector, as well, the Federal Government forecasts a low two-digit number of additional notifications per year of which the majority is expected to relate to investments in the civil sector. Whether or not these expectations are really met, will ultimately depend on the manageability of the criteria for determining the scope of investment reviews in practice. Should it not be clearly determinable in an individual case whether or not the foreign investment falls into the scope of the investment review, legal security could be gained (if possible \u2013 see III.) by applying for a binding certificate of non-objection.<\/p>\n<h2>II. Outlook<\/h2>\n<p>Germany promotes the amendment of EU law on a European level (see <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bmwi.de\/Redaktion\/EN\/Pressemitteilungen\/2017\/20170913-eu-vorschlag-zu-investitionspruefungen-wichtiger-schritt-fuer-faire-wettbewerbsbedingungen-in-europa-und-besseren-schutz-bei-firmenuebernahmen.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">BMiE\u2019s homepage<\/a>), so that industrial policy criteria in the framework of investment reviews can be taken into consideration and can possibly be considered for the prohibition of investments. This is especially considered in such cases where (i) the freedom of investment does not exist for German or European companies in a comparable scope in the country of origin of the investor as it exists for the investor in Germany or the EU or where (ii) an acquisition is ultimately supported and\/or financed by a foreign state for strategic reasons and runs counter to the legitimate interests of the EU or a member state. In the meantime, the European commission has submitted a draft regulation for a European framework for investment reviews (COM (2017) 487 final), which shall set the framework for the national regulations on investment reviews. In this draft the European commission seizes the German proposal at least to that extent that whether or not the investor is controlled or substantially financed by the government of a foreign country can be taken into consideration as an additional criterion for the prohibition of an investment (article 4 of the draft). Furthermore, each member state shall report any investment reviews to all other member states and the European commission without undue delay. In addition, the European commission shall obtain an own\u00a0 examination right if an investment effects certain EU infrastructure programs such as e.g. Galileo, EGNOS, Copernicus, Horizon 2020, Trans-European Networks for Transport, Energy or Telecommunication. Even though the European Commission shall be entitled only to submit a recommendation to the respective national authority \/ member state but not to prohibit the foreign investment in question, the member state has to explain any deviation from the European Commission\u2019s recommendation (see article 9 of the draft). The national review deadlines shall allow for sufficient time to take any European Commission\u2019s recommendation into consideration within the framework of the investment screening. It remains to be seen whether and in which form the draft will become \u201claw\u201d, as well as if and which amendments of the current German regulations will be required in the end.<\/p>\n<h2>III. Excursion: compliance with foreign investment reviews in case of an acquisition of German companies with business activities in foreign countries<\/h2>\n<p>Regulations for the screening of foreign investments also exist, inter alia, in Australia, Canada, China, France, India, Japan, Russia, Great Britain, United Arab Emirates and the US. These provisions, too, may be of relevance when it comes to acquisitions of German companies with business activities in one or more of the aforementioned countries and may lead to \u2013 similarly to the intended acquisition of AIXTRON SE by a Chinese investor \u2013 a failure of the acquisition in case of the prohibition of the (indirect) acquisition. Moreover, in connection with the failed acquisition of AIXTRON SE it was remarkable that the BMWiE initially granted a binding certificate of non-objection, but revoked it even before the prohibition of the (indirect) acquisition of the US business and ordered the reopening of the review procedure under the AWG and AWV (see ad hoc announcement published by AIXTRON SE of 24 October 2016).<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-av_one_third-73aaecfb4fe7e39558cc207c955e4161\">\n.flex_column.av-av_one_third-73aaecfb4fe7e39558cc207c955e4161{\nborder-radius:0px 0px 0px 0px;\npadding:7px 0px 0px 0px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='flex_column av-av_one_third-73aaecfb4fe7e39558cc207c955e4161 av_one_third  avia-builder-el-8  el_after_av_two_third  avia-builder-el-last  sy-only-desktop flex_column_div  column-top-margin'     ><p><div  class='avia-builder-widget-area clearfix  avia-builder-el-9  el_before_av_textblock  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href=\"https:\/\/honert.de\/en\/category\/2020-q1-en\/\">2020 Q1<\/a>\n<\/li>\n\t<li class=\"cat-item cat-item-156\"><a href=\"https:\/\/honert.de\/en\/category\/2019-q4-en\/\">2019 Q4<\/a>\n<\/li>\n\t<li class=\"cat-item cat-item-150\"><a href=\"https:\/\/honert.de\/en\/category\/2019-q3-en\/\">2019 Q3<\/a>\n<\/li>\n\t<li class=\"cat-item cat-item-138\"><a href=\"https:\/\/honert.de\/en\/category\/2019-q2-en\/\">2019 Q2<\/a>\n<\/li>\n\t<li class=\"cat-item cat-item-140\"><a href=\"https:\/\/honert.de\/en\/category\/2019-q1-en\/\">2019 Q1<\/a>\n<\/li>\n\t<li class=\"cat-item cat-item-144\"><a href=\"https:\/\/honert.de\/en\/category\/2018-q4-en\/\">2018 Q4<\/a>\n<\/li>\n\t<li class=\"cat-item cat-item-146\"><a href=\"https:\/\/honert.de\/en\/category\/2018-q3-en\/\">2018 Q3<\/a>\n<\/li>\n\t<li class=\"cat-item cat-item-136\"><a href=\"https:\/\/honert.de\/en\/category\/2018-q2-en\/\">2018 Q2<\/a>\n<\/li>\n\t<li class=\"cat-item cat-item-128\"><a href=\"https:\/\/honert.de\/en\/category\/2018-q1-en\/\">2018 Q1<\/a>\n<\/li>\n\t<li class=\"cat-item cat-item-126\"><a href=\"https:\/\/honert.de\/en\/category\/2017-q4-en\/\">2017 Q4<\/a>\n<\/li>\n\t<li class=\"cat-item cat-item-116\"><a href=\"https:\/\/honert.de\/en\/category\/2017-q3-en\/\">2017 Q3<\/a>\n<\/li>\n\t<li class=\"cat-item cat-item-114\"><a href=\"https:\/\/honert.de\/en\/category\/2017-q2-en\/\">2017 Q2<\/a>\n<\/li>\n\t<li class=\"cat-item cat-item-142\"><a href=\"https:\/\/honert.de\/en\/category\/deals-en\/\">Deal Announcements<\/a>\n<\/li>\n\t<li class=\"cat-item cat-item-58\"><a href=\"https:\/\/honert.de\/en\/category\/uncategorized\/\">Uncategorized<\/a>\n<\/li>\n\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\n\t\t\t<span class=\"seperator extralight-border\"><\/span><\/section><\/div><br \/>\n<section  class='av_textblock_section av-av_textblock-35972167d9f102c5ddaec0c531c98b9e '   itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/BlogPosting\" itemprop=\"blogPost\" ><div class='avia_textblock'  itemprop=\"text\" ><h2>More information on this topic<\/h2>\n<ul class=\"sy-list-margin\">\n<li><a href=\"\/?page_id=1717\">Mergers &amp; Acquisitions (M&amp;A)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/?page_id=1758\">Corporate Law<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/section><br \/>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-av_hr-fb479b19f087d3def54096c70f7e0968\">\n#top .hr.hr-invisible.av-av_hr-fb479b19f087d3def54096c70f7e0968{\nheight:8px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='hr av-av_hr-fb479b19f087d3def54096c70f7e0968 hr-invisible  avia-builder-el-11  el_after_av_textblock  el_before_av_textblock '><span class='hr-inner '><span class=\"hr-inner-style\"><\/span><\/span><\/div><br \/>\n<section  class='av_textblock_section av-av_textblock-35972167d9f102c5ddaec0c531c98b9e '   itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/BlogPosting\" itemprop=\"blogPost\" ><div class='avia_textblock'  itemprop=\"text\" ><h2>Downloads<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"#\" onclick=\"window.print();return false\">Print<\/a><br \/>\n\n\n\n\t<div class=\"dkpdf-button-container\" style=\" text-align:left \">\n\n\t\t<a class=\"dkpdf-button\" href=\"\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2759?pdf=2759\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"dkpdf-button-icon\"><i class=\"fa fa-file-pdf-o\"><\/i><\/span> Download (PDF)<\/a>\n\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><!-- close content main div --><\/div><\/div><div id='after_section_2'  class='main_color av_default_container_wrap container_wrap sidebar_right'  ><div class='container av-section-cont-open' ><div class='template-page content  av-content-small alpha units'><div class='post-entry post-entry-type-page post-entry-2759'><div class='entry-content-wrapper clearfix'>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The German Federal Government has enacted stricter rules for the review of foreign investments in Germany with effect as of 18 July 2017. The review criteria remain for the time being whether or not a foreign investment endangers the national security or the public security and order of the Federal Republic of Germany. The interpretation [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[116],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2017-q3-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/honert.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/honert.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/honert.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/honert.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/honert.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2759"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/honert.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2908,"href":"https:\/\/honert.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2759\/revisions\/2908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/honert.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/honert.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/honert.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}