thought this was pertinent to WCL and Landbridge, and maybe...

thought this was pertinent to WCL and Landbridge, and maybe Petro?

so L/B proposal was nominally about $164m, and should have been under that $248m and thus not subject to FIRB approval.

Yet it was to be a Condition of Takeover, if a T/o ever was to eventuate.

I guess they were covering all bases?


Extract from today's AFR:

The Abbott government is likely to exempt Chinese foreign investment below $1 billion from requiring formal approval but still expects the sensitive issue to be a sticking point in negotiations over a trade agreement.

The threshold for an investment in “non-sensitive sectors” by a private entity at which the Foreign Investment Review Board will apply scrutiny would increase from $248 million to $1.08 billion.

It would remain at zero for investments by state-owned entities and be set at $15 million for the purchase of established agricultural land.

There is a zero threshold for investments by all state-owned enterprises, regardless of country of origin, but China could push for special treatment in this regard.

Mr Abbott was coy on the details of negotiations but said he envisaged foreign investment to be one of the sticking points.

“We want to reassure the Chinese government that we are open for business,” he said.

“I will be reassuring the Chinese that our FIRB regime is one that they could well and truly live with to the mutual advantage of both countries.”

He noted the only bid rejected by his government was the proposed GrainCorp takeover by Archer Daniels ­Midlands and that, he noted, was a bid by a US company, not a Chinese ­company.