A purchase or investment in any of the U.S. government’s thirteen identified critical infrastructure sectors(a) would require a CFIUS review, the thirteen sectors are as follows:
Agriculture and food, water, public health, emergency services, defense industrial base, telecommunications, energy, transportation, banking and finance, chemical industry and hazardous materials, and postal and shipping
A failure to manage the CFIUS process in an optimal manner could create uncertainty about a foreign acquiror’s ability to pursue a transaction or could disadvantage a foreign acquiror in an auction process against others that do not have the same CFIUS risk
Further, failure to appropriately manage the CFIUS process could result in a rejection of the transaction or an imposition by CIFUS of mitigants including, among others, a divestiture of sensitive assets