Germany’s Aixtron says US opposes China deal on security

Germany’s Aixtron said the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States ( CFIUS) informed the company it would recommend that its pending takeover by China’s Fujian Grand Chip Investment Fund be blocked.

Aixtron said the committee, which reviews deals that may be national security risks, told the chip equipment makers it plans to recommend to the US president that the deal be blocked due to security concerns and advised the companies to drop the deal.

Aixtron said in a statement that the companies decided not to follow the CFIUS recommendation. Neither company was available for comment.

Experts say the CFIUS rarely kills a deal outright but will inform lawyers handling the deal of its opposition, and the firms usually drop the transaction.

The only deal the CFIUS formally stopped was in 2012, when it obtained a presidential order requiring a small Chinese company, Ralls Corp, to sell a wind farm in Oregon because the farm was near a training site used to test unmanned drones.

German newspaper Handelsblatt re- ported last month that US intelligence services had warned Germany on the proposed Chinese takeover of Aixtron, adding that the deal could give China access to technology that could be used for military purposes.

The German government also withdrew its approval for the deal following security concerns.