Foreign Investment Regulatory Framework

Navigating regulatory changes

Australia’s foreign investment regulatory framework changed substantially in January 2021. Our team is at the forefront of these changes and well placed to help you plan ahead as you execute your Australian investment strategy.

Whether you are investing into Australia from overseas, or expanding your existing Australian business through acquisitions, or running a sale process that will attract foreign interest, it is likely that you will need to consider whether and how the Australian Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) regime will need to be factored into your plans and form part of your transaction strategy.

How we can help

We have been leading the Law Council of Australia's response to these changes and have brought our expertise to shape multiple submissions on these reforms. With our deep understanding of the FIRB regime and considerable experience engaging with FIRB, we can pre-empt and proactively respond to issues so that transactions run to timetable. 

We have considerable experience advising on approvals for pension funds, private equity funds, state owned enterprises, sovereign wealth funds and other foreign investors on complex foreign investment approvals.

Navigating the review process

Our strong and enduring relationships with FIRB, enables us to play an effective role in any deal team. It is becoming more usual for FIRB to impose conditions on their approval (particularly in relation to data, tax and critical infrastructure) and we have expert teams to help clients reach satisfactory outcomes.

Helping you with compliance and enforcement actions

FIRB is increasingly focused on monitoring compliance with approval conditions and enforcement. Where non-compliance is identified, often this can be resolved through a negotiated remediation action plan. We have deep expertise in this area.