Amongst a menu of urgent changes designed to combat the effect of Covid-19, on 14 May 2020 the Government introduced the Overseas Investment (Urgent Measures) Amendment Bill (Urgent Measures Bill) into Parliament. This Bill proposes further changes to the Overseas Investment Act 2005 (Act) with the introduction of a temporary notification regime, and fast tracks the national interest test.
The Urgent Measures Bill introduces a number of changes which will reduce the regulatory burden on investors and will also bring in those changes previously detailed in the Overseas Investment Amendment Bill (No 2) that the Government considers are urgently required. These are intended to take effect once the Urgent Measures Bill is in force. The remaining provisions of the Overseas Investment Amendment Bill (No 2) that have not been fast tracked under the Urgent Measures Bill will move into a new bill, the Overseas Investment Amendment Bill (No 3), which will proceed through the usual legislative process, and is expected to pass through Parliament in the next 12 months.
The Covid-19 pandemic and the economic downturn have created new foreign investment risk, and the Urgent Measures Bill is intended to stop vulnerable New Zealand assets being subject to foreign takeover during the economic fallout from Covid-19. Speaking of the Urgent Measures Bill, Associate Finance Minister David Parker has said:
“Hypothetically, with international tourism at a standstill the value of a significant tourism company may have plummeted and could be low or near zero. That value would not reflect the importance of the business, so interim controls are needed to protect our national interest.”
The Urgent Measures Bill had its first reading on 14 May, and it is intended to be passed quickly with a shortened Select Committee process. It is anticipated the Urgent Measures Bill will come into force in the middle of June.
The key changes under the Urgent Measures Bill are:
These changes are discussed in detail below.
Temporary Notification Requirement
The temporary notification regime requires certain transactions to be notified to the Government, even if these transactions would not ordinarily require consent under the Act. Under the regime, overseas investors will be required to notify the Government before they proceed with an investment in a New Zealand business that involves:
Once notified, the Minister will then consider whether the investment is contrary to the national interest. The Minister may impose conditions on, or prohibit, certain transactions. It is anticipated that the majority of transactions will proceed without any Government intervention or any conditions imposed.
The Urgent Measures Bill requires the notification to be provided prior to transaction closing, in writing. The exact details of the requirement are yet to be prescribed in regulations, but it is anticipated that the investor will be required to provide certain details on the transaction to the Overseas Investment Office, such as the identity, ownership and control details of the investor, any links to foreign governments, broad transaction details including the nature of the business or property to be acquired and the commercial rationale for the purchase (including as to pricing and valuation). A notification form will apparently be available on the Overseas Investment Office’s website.
The Government intends that investors will be notified within 10 days whether a transaction could be contrary to New Zealand’s national interest and subject to a further detailed review, which is to be processed within 40 days and may be extended by up to 30 days. The exact details and timeframes will be set out in the regulations. There will be no fee for submitting a notification.
Failure to comply with the notification requirements also means that the Government could later unwind the transaction if it fails the national interest test.
Even if not notified formally, the Minister may exercise his or her own discretion and determine a transaction to be contrary to the national interest, with the same potential unwind consequences.
The temporary notification requirement will be reviewed every 90 days and will only remain in place while the Covid-19 pandemic and its associated economic impacts continue to have a “significant effect in New Zealand” – a matter open to interpretation at the margins but which potentially could be for quite a long time.
Acceleration of the National Interest Test
The national interest test will allow the Minister of Finance to deny consent to any investment ordinarily screened under the Act that is considered to be contrary to New Zealand’s national interest (including security, economic and other interests). This power has been modelled on the Australian regime, but with the addition of an express discretionary Ministerial extension of the concept. This power and discretion cannot be delegated to the OIO.
Transactions of national interest are broadly defined as transactions already requiring consent under the Act which result in:
Please refer to our previous article here for further details of the national interest test.
“Call-In” Powers
Once the temporary emergency notification requirement is removed, the Government will have replacement “call-in” powers to review certain investments in strategically important businesses which would not ordinarily be captured by the Act. This power would allow the Government to call in certain transactions, place conditions on or prohibit certain transactions from proceeding where they are perceived to pose a risk of harm to New Zealand’s national security or public order. The call-in power would apply to those types of business captured under the national interest test (excluding large irrigation schemes), and will extend to investments in businesses that hold or generate certain types of sensitive data (for example health or financial data).
Please refer to our previous article for further details of the “call-in powers” (see above link).
Changes to simplify the Overseas Investment Regime
Certain changes originally introduced under the Overseas Investment Amendment Bill (No 2) are being fast tracked under the Urgent Measures Bill with the purpose of reducing the regulatory burden of the Act. This is in part due to the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as the expected time period for the passage of the Overseas Investment Amendment Bill (No 3) through Parliament.
The Urgent Measures Bill proposes to make it simpler to make productive investments in New Zealand by:
Details of these are covered in our earlier article (see above link).
If you would like more information on the Urgent Measures Bill or application of the Overseas Investment Act generally, please contact us. We will provide further details of interest on the Urgent Measures Bill and regulations as they become available.
May 2020