The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS) has opposed a Chinese takeover of a European company, for the second time in less than one year, The Wall Street Journal reported.
German tech company, Aixtron SE said the CFIUS informed them of its objection on Friday, Nov. 18, citing "unresolved U.S. national security concerns regarding the proposed transaction." The company did not say the exact reason for the U.S. objection.
In the past few months, the secretive U.S. committee is becoming more active in scrutinizing overseas deals, even in transactions where no American firm is involved.
Last month, after withdrawing its earlier approval, the German economics ministry reopened a review of the €670 million ($710 million) acquisition of Aixtron by Grand Chip Investment GmbH, the German unit of Fujian Grand Chip Investment Fund LP of China.
According to the report, the German government's move came after U.S. authorities called their attention to certain technologies.
The moves were seen as part of the Western government's growing security concerns over the series of acquisitions by Chinese companies.
The report, however, said that CFIUS involvement in the deal is unusual since it has no jurisdiction over the two companies.
CFIUS involvement in the Aixtron acquisition is the latest move in a deal with non-U.S. firms. Last year, Dutch electronics company Royal Philips NV's planned $2.8 billion sale of its lighting-component and automotive-lighting unit to a Chinese investor was cancelled, after CFIUS raised "certain unforeseen" concerns with that deal, the company disclosed in October 2015.
The U.S. committee also reviewed the $16.6 -billion merger between Nokia Corp. and Alcatel-Lucent SA. Although the panel approved ChemChina's $43 billion takeover of Syngenta SA, the deal is still being examined by antitrust officials.
Last Friday, Nov. 18, CFIUS advised the parties to "abandon the entire transaction," Aixtron said. The panel also told Aixtron that it would ask President Obama to block the deal because no possible remedies can be found to resolve their concerns.
Sources said that the stumbling block to the Aixtron deal could be the use of GaN, a semiconductor technology based on gallium nitride. The technology has military applications that can boost radar performance such as that of an antimissile system known as Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD).
According to the report, Aixtron has been selling products focused on GaN to companies that included U.S. defense contractor Northrop Grumman Corp.
The report said that CFIUS's move on Aixtron is an indication of similar scrutiny that German robotics company Kuka AG may face, involving the $5 billion takeover by Midea Group of China. Kuka supplies products to some leading German industrial companies and U.S. defense contractors.