CFIUS60秒速读任何交易都不安全：CFIUS加强对“未申报”交易的调

CFIUS60秒速读任何交易都不安全：CFIUS加强对“未申报”交易的调查

CFIUS正在加强审查那些未经申报就完成交割的交易。中国投资者应当自行审查现有投资，并就交割后仍受CFIUS 审查的风险做出判断。

过去二十年内中国投资者对美国公司进行了数以千计的收购交易及少数投资交易。在绝大部分这些交易中，交易各方并未向CFIUS申报。这完全合法，因为直到最近，所有的CFIUS申报都以自愿为基础。

理论上来说，几乎所有这些交易都受CFIUS管辖，且该管辖权并无期限。CFIUS有权审查任何外国实体对美国公司的投资，无论地点、投资规模或产业，除非投资者以完全被动投资的方式收购少于10%的投票权。此外，CFIUS始终有权审查未申报交易。

CFIUS通常只会审查与国家安全有关的交易，但国家安全的含义会随时间产生变化。例如，在五年前，投资一家生产追踪用户锻炼路径和健康数据的设备的公司可能不会有问题。交易各方可能不会向CFIUS进行申报，这个决定在当时也是合理的。但是由于交易当时并未申报，现在CFIUS仍有权对交易进行调查，而且工作人员将在如今的中美关系背景下进行审查。现在，收集用户地理位置和健康相关数据的应用会被CFIUS认为具有高度国家安全风险。

过去两年里，特朗普政府在审查过去交易方面投入了大量资源，并在审查中扩张解释了威胁美国国家安全的含义。过去，CFIUS很少审查已交割完成但未经申报的交易。但在过去一年半中，至少有四例CFIUS调查结果导致了撤资行政令, 甚至一栋Trump Tower附近的办公楼，都被迫从在美投资中撤资了。对某国际短视频平台的交割后调查只不过是最新一例。

未来这股趋势可能扭转，但CFIUS对未申报交易的审查节奏也可能持续加快。

本文的结论是：除非通过CFIUS审查，任何交易都不安全。投资者应当在当今中美关系恶化的背景下仔细自行审查过往交易，并决定这些交易是否可能引起当前新的CFIUS审查者的注意。

英文原文

No deal is safe: CFIUS ramps up investigations of “non-notified” transactions

CFIUS is stepping up its investigations into deals that were closed without a CFIUS filing. Chinese investors should self-assess their existing investments and make a judgment as to the risk of a post-closing CFIUS investigation.

Over the last two decades there have been thousands of acquisitions and minority investments in US businesses. In the vast majority of those cases, the parties made a decision not to file with CFIUS. This was perfectly legal, because until recently, all CFIUS filings were voluntary.

As a technical matter, almost all these transactions were within the jurisdiction of CFIUS, and that jurisdiction never goes away. The Committee has the authority to review any investment by any foreign person in any US business, wherever located, no matter how small, in any industry—unless the investor acquires less than 10% by vote in a purely passive investment. And non-notified transactions remain open to investigation by CFIUS forever.

CFIUS is only interested in transactions that touch on national security, but unfortunately, what constitutes national security changes over time.

For example, five years ago, an investment in a company making devices that track users’ exercise routines and fitness data might not have raised concerns. The parties might not have filed with CFIUS, and it would have been a rational decision. But because no filing was made then, CFIUS has the right to look at it now, and the staff will view the transaction through the lens of the current US-China relationship. Today, apps that collect geolocation and health-related data are high on the list of national security concerns for CFIUS.

In the past two years, the Trump Administration has poured resources into the investigation of past transactions, using a vastly expanded idea of what constitutes a threat to US national security. CFIUS review of already-completed, but non-notified transactions used to be relatively rare. In the past eighteen months, at least four post-closing investigations have led to pestiture orders - even an office building near Trump Tower, have been

forced to pest themselves from their US businesses. The post-closing investigation of the most popular short video company is only the most recent.

It is possible this trend will reverse itself. However, it seems that the pace of CFIUS’s investigations into non-notified transactions is likely to increase.

The 60-second takeaway for Chinese investors is: no deal is safe unless it was cleared by CFIUS. Investors should do a self-assessment of their prior transactions in the harsh light of today’s hostile US-China environment, and make a judgment as whether they are likely to attract the attention of CFIUS’s new cadre of backward-looking investigators.