Mr Sims discussed the ACCC's priorities and was interviewed by ACBC President, Dr Craig Emerson (former Australian Trade Minister).

The key takeaways raised in the discussion were:

• FDI is procompetitive: Mr Sims underlined that from competition perspective, foreign investment is often procompetitive – and not only due to the influx of capital in an industry. Foreign investors often bring with them a new way of doing business. Mr Sims used Aldi as an example of this.
• Lower capital costs spur infrastructure investment: Mr Sims suggested that Chinese investors’ lower cost of capital may explain their focus on, and sizable investments in, infrastructure assets.
• No special scrutiny for Chinese investment: Mr Sims made clear that the ACCC doesn’t view Chinese investment any differently than a merger involving other parties. However, he anticipates that the ACCC will likely be asked to consider a common ownership involving Chinese SOEs at some stage. Other approvals, such as FIRB approval, involve a broader range of considerations that are not relevant to the ACCC’s inquiry.
• Common ownership: In any merger in which common ownership of two parties is an issue, Mr Sims indicated that the ACCC will start from the position that those two parties will coordinate their conduct through their common owner, until persuaded otherwise by the parties’ submissions. So Chinese State Owned Enterprises will be regarded as co-ordinating unless they can be demonstrated to act independently of each other.
• Privatisation done right: Mr Sims reiterated the Commission’s view that privatisations should not be structured so as to boost the sale price at the expense of competition.

Partners Katrina Groshinski and Ben Smith spoke about the relationship between the ACCC's powers and priorities and our growing inbound Chinese investment practice.