CHINA Law and Practice Contributed by: Jeff Liu, Jeanette Wang, Yulong Lai and Yun Bi, Shihui Partners
co-ordinates successfully with local counsel in multi- jurisdictional filings, including in the European Union, Germany, South Korea, Turkey and the Taiwan region. She assists clients in response to antitrust investigations or inquiries and provides assistance with antitrust compliance audits, antitrust training and competition compliance.
Shihui Partners 42nd-43rd Floor,
Tower C, Beijing Yintai Center, No. 2 Jianguomenwai Avenue, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100022, China Tel: +86 10 8514 7500 Email: beijing@shihuilaw.com Web: www.shihuilaw.com
1. Trends 1.1 Regulatory and Enforcement Environment Compared to 12 months ago, the overall regulatory environment exhibits the following characteristics: • Merger control: China’s merger control regime is more focused and technically sophisticated: higher notification thresholds mean fewer filings overall, but the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) conducts more in-depth substantive scru - tiny, especially in technology, platform and con - centrated industries, and is more willing to review transactions below thresholds where competitive concerns arise. • Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) regime: The general foreign investment environment continues to liberalise, with further narrowing of the Nega - tive List and policy signals emphasising “high-level opening-up”. This is primarily aimed at encourag - ing long-term, high-quality investment rather than fast or speculative deal activity. • National security screening: National security review (NSR) has become more predictable in structure but more firmly embedded in deal plan -
ning; transactions involving critical technologies, data, infrastructure or supply chains are more likely to be reviewed, and national security consid - erations are now more clearly co-ordinated with antitrust and data-related assessments. • Sectoral regulatory approvals: Sector regulators (finance, telecoms, healthcare, energy, etc) remain a decisive factor in M&A, with cautious and policy- driven approval processes. Expectations are clear - er than a year ago, but timelines and outcomes still depend heavily on alignment with industrial and security priorities. • M&A-related litigation: Litigation and administra - tive challenges around M&A have increased in sophistication, with courts issuing more guidance on antitrust and competition disputes; parties now factor litigation and compliance risk earlier into deal structuring, though successful challenges to regulatory decisions remain uncommon. 1.2 Key Trends • Merger control: China has shifted towards fewer but more intensive reviews. Higher filing thresholds reduce volume, while the SAMR conducts more in-depth substantive review, including call-in of
28 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook