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Peter Thomas Quoted in The American Lawyer on Increased CFIUS Activity in 2017

04.03.17
Washington, D.C. Litigation Partner Peter Thomas was quoted in The American Lawyer in an article titled, “So Close, Yet So Far.” The article examined the current state of the M&A market, and the impact that the new administration has had on it. Peter noted that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) saw a record number of cases filed before it in the first two months of 2017. Peter observed that “[d]espite the scrutiny that’s being applied, especially to Chinese investment, we’re not seeing any real slowdown in the level of M&A activity at the moment.” Peter did predict that some foreign acquisitions in sensitive sectors such as semiconductors may not get through even with mitigation agreements: “[W]e’re in a space where the committee will be more prepared to outright block these transactions . . . and so the semiconductor area, cybersecurity area, defense and aerospace, certainly those areas are going to be tough to get at least transactions from countries of concern like China and Russia through the committee.”