BERLIN, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- The federal government in Germany has denied on Wednesday that it is planning to create a new state fund to ward off foreign take-overs of domestic firms.
A spokesperson for the ministry of the economy said that Berlin was not considering any legislative changes which would enable it to acquire a stake in companies deemed to be of strategic interest to national security or prosperity. "Germany is open for international investors and supports the freedom of international capital flows," the spokesperson said.
Earlier, the newspaper "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" (FAZ) had reported that senior officials in the ministry led by Peter Altmaier (CDU) were openly mulling such a move. While criticizing the United States for pursuing a protectionist agenda under the mantle of national security, German policymakers have repeatedly highlighted purportedly adverse long-run consequences of foreign takeovers in the country's own industrial manufacturing sector.
The ministerial spokesperson emphasized on Wednesday that although a "state fund" as cited by FAZ was not on the cards in this context, the federal government remained "obliged to protect the security policy interests of Germany."
According to the ministry, the German government was currently assessing lowering the investment threshold for foreign acquisitions which require special regulatory approval. A concrete proposal under review was to lower the threshold from a current 25 percent stake in the firm in question to 15 percent for sensitive industries such as Information Technology (IT) and energy.
