Independent Member for Clark, Andrew Wilkie, has called on the Federal Treasurer to ensure the Foreign Investment Review Board conducts more stringent assessments and applies more stringent criteria in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.
“I am concerned that the volatile Australian stock market will make temporarily undervalued Australian companies vulnerable to being purchased by foreign corporate raiders,” Mr Wilkie said.
“I am calling on the Government to ensure that the Foreign Investment Review Board looks closely at all potential overseas purchases of Australian companies to make sure that any sale is not an opportunistic seizure by foreigners at odds with the long term social and economic interest of Australians.
“What I want to avoid is a repeat of anything like the $1.5b take-over of Bellamy later last year, after its shares had shed 62 per cent of their value over the preceding 18 months, which made it a bargain-buy for an overseas company.”