A Chinese company has abandoned its proposed acquisition of a British graphene company after the plan came under the scrutiny of the UK government, British Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said on Thursday.
Kwarteng last month ordered an investigation into the proposed acquisition of Wales’ Perpetuus Group by Shanghai Kington Technologies and others “on national security grounds.”
In an update on Twitter, Kwarteng wrote, “the proposed acquisition has been abandoned.”
“The UK government monitors the market at all times to identify acquisitions of potential national security interest. We will intervene where necessary,” he added.
Kwarteng first intervened in the proposed acquisition in September last year, when he asked the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to look at the proposed takeover of Perpetuus involving Taurus International—a company of scant detail registered to a semi-detached house in London—and a Chinese nano-materials scientist with industry links in China who already works with Perpetuus….