Photo of John R. Ingrassia

John R. Ingrassia

John is a partner at the Firm, advising on the full range of foreign investment and antitrust matters across industries, including chemicals, pharmaceutical, medical devices, telecommunications, financial services consumer goods and health care. He is the first call clients make in matters relating to competition and antitrust, CFIUS or foreign investment issues.

For more than 25 years, John has counselled businesses facing the most challenging antitrust issues and helped them stay out of the crosshairs -- whether its distribution, pricing, channel management, mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, or price gouging compliance.

John’s practice focuses on the analysis and resolution of CFIUS and antitrust issues related to mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures, and the analysis and assessment of pre-merger CFIUS and HSR notification requirements. He advises clients on issues related to CFIUS national security reviews, and on CFIUS submissions when non-U.S. buyers seek to acquire U.S. businesses that have national security sensitivities.  He also regularly advises clients on international antitrust issues arising in proposed acquisitions and joint ventures, including reportability under the EC Merger Regulation and numerous other foreign merger control regimes.

His knowledge, reputation and extensive experience with the legal, practical, and technical requirements of merger clearance make him a recognized authority on Hart-Scott-Rodino antitrust merger review. John is regularly invited to participate in Federal Trade Commission and bar association meetings and takes on the issues of the day.

On October 28, 2024, the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) issued final regulations (“Final Rule”) implementing Executive Order 14105, which addresses investments by U.S. persons in certain identified technologies in “Countries of Concern”, including The People’s Republic of China, The Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong, and The Special Administrative Region of Macau. The regulations will go into effect on January 2, 2025.

The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) has announced a final rulemaking on a unanimous vote that will expand the reporting requirements for mergers and acquisitions under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 (the “HSR Act”). The new reporting requirements will go into effect after the new year in mid-January 2025. No changes will be made

The U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury), as Chair of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), has announced a proposed rule to expand CFIUS’s jurisdiction over real estate transactions by foreign persons. The Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018 (FIRRMA) granted CFIUS authority to review certain real estate transactions in close proximity to United States military installations or certain or facilities or properties of the U.S. Government.

With an eye towards preserving and expanding the gatekeeper role in national security, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has issued proposed rules to strengthen enforcement.

On April 11, 2024, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, as Chair of CFIUS, announced proposed rules and accepted comment until May 15, 2024, 30 days following publication in the Federal Register on April 15, 2024. The proposed rules strengthen CFIUS regulations and enforcement tools in the following ways.

Proskauer’s Hedge Fund Trading Guide offers a concise, easy-to-read overview of the trading issues and questions we commonly encounter when advising hedge funds and their managers. It is written not only for lawyers, but also for investment professionals, support staff and others interested in gaining a quick understanding of the recurring trading issues we tackle for clients, along with the solutions and analyses we have developed over our decades-long representation of hedge funds and their managers.

Implications for CFIUS Reporting and Review

The Executive Branch, through the National Science and Technology Council and the National Security Council, committed in 2020 to identify that are potentially significant to U.S. national security. The 2024 update was released on February 12, 2024. Updated every two years, the CET list is the product of extensive interagency deliberations, and “ …builds upon earlier lists and may inform government-wide and agency-specific efforts supporting U.S. technological competitiveness and national security.”

In April 2023, we published an overview of the BE-12, a benchmark survey conducted every five years by the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis (“BEA”) to gather information about foreign direct investment in the United States. BEA also conducts surveys to gather information about United States direct investment abroad. The purpose of this post is to discuss one of those surveys, the BE-11, which has just gone live on BEA’s website and whose due date is approaching on May 31, 2024.

The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of Currency (OCC) released a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPR) seeking to “increase the transparency of the standards that apply to the agency’s review of business combinations involving national banks and Federal savings associations.” The NPR includes several amendments to the procedures for reviewing proposed bank mergers under the Bank Merger Act (BMA).