FRANCE: Temporary Lowering of Threshold for Foreign Investments

Tuesday July 28 2020

France added a new measure to strengthen its FDI rules, which were already amended since December 31, 2019.

France’s FDI screening mechanism applies to foreign investors in relation to, among others, any transaction giving the investor, alone or in concert, directly or indirectly, 25% threshold or more of the voting rights in a French company whose shares are admitted to trading on a regulated market.

The decree lowers the threshold from 25% to 10% for the acquisition of voting rights, likely to trigger control in French companies carrying out sensitive activities and whose shares are admitted to trading on a regulated market. In order to limit the brakes on market liquidity during these operations to acquire a minority fraction of the voting rights, the procedure would be simplified by notifying the General Directorate of the Treasury of reduced information; filing of a common law request being subordinate to a request from the Minister expressed within ten working days.

This decree does not apply to investments made within ten working days of its publication.

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