Timing
The Government has a statutory time period of 30 working days to clear or call in a notified transaction. It took the Government a median of 29 working days to make such decisions for mandatory notifications once accepted, and a median of 30 working days for voluntary notifications. This was broadly in line with the previous reporting period. Following a call-in, the Government has 30 working days to conduct its substantive review of the transaction, which can be extended by 45 working days (known as the ‘additional period’). The Report shows that the Government used the additional period in only 18 of the 60 investigations into called-in acquisitions, which is down from 21 out of 56 investigations in the previous reporting period. This could suggest either greater confidence on the Government’s part to review transactions to its satisfaction within the ‘initial’ 30 working-day period, or investors providing more fulsome information on their notifications as parties become more familiar with the NSIA.
Statutory timelines do not necessarily give the full picture, as the Government can ‘stop the clock’ when parties respond to information or attendance notices post call-in. The days when the clock is stopped are not counted in the statutory timelines. As such, actual timelines could be longer than the statutory timelines suggest. For example, it took the Government a median of 24 statutory working days (or 47 calendar working days) to approve transactions without remedies following a call-in (“Final Notifications”), and a median of 69 statutory working days (or 97 calendar working days) to make a Final Order following a call-in.
The time to have a notification accepted or rejected must also be considered for transaction timelines, as there was a notable increase in the time taken to accept a notification. It took the Government a median of 11 working days to accept a mandatory notification and 13 working days for voluntary notifications, up from seven and eight working days, respectively, in the previous reporting period. The number of notifications pending acceptance or rejection increased to 78 notifications in the Reporting Period from 33 in the previous reporting period, possibly indicating processing delays due to increased notification volumes.
Sectors
The defence sector again accounted for the largest share of all notifications received (58%), followed by the military and dual-use sector (23%) and critical suppliers to the Government sector (20%). Figures 2 and 3 show the split of call-in notices and Final Orders across sectors. Defence also led on call-ins, accounting for 47% of the 60 call-in notices, up from 36% the previous reporting period. Notably, however, the advanced materials sector led on Final Orders with five of the nine issued, displacing defence, which had led in the previous two reporting periods. Data infrastructure (three Final Orders) and military and dual-use (two Final Orders) were the next most active sectors.
