Lawyers hope merger and foreign investment changes will work together to speed up deals
The government's pre-budget merger and foreign investment updates weren't necessarily designed to work together, but lawyers say they could help speed up deal approvals.
The Albanese government’s concurrent plans to reform both merger laws and the foreign investment review regime are more than window dressing ahead of next week’s federal budget, and will likely work together neatly to streamline existing approval processes, foreign investment lawyers say.
While both sets of the planned changes were not necessarily designed to work together, they will inevitably impact one another given the role of foreign investment in mergers and acquisitions. The hope is that they reduce, rather than add to, existing double-handling and duplication.
"The merger proposals seem to dovetail very neatly with other initiatives that the government is undertaking, including reducing the red tape with [the Foreign Investment Review Board]," Gilbert + Tobin partner Deborah Johns told Capital Brief.
Under a mandatory merger regime set to come into force in 2026, deals above a yet to be announced threshold must be notified to the Australian competition regulator, with a government goal to stop "creeping acquisitions".
