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.
“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.
The person named in the intervention is Dr. Zhongfu Zhou, a materials scientist born in China, who has worked in the UK for the last 15 years. He is listed as the only associate of Perpetuus. He has carried out research in the UK and holds various positions in the materials research industry relating to collaboration with China.
On May 11, Kwarteng ordered further investigation into the proposed acquisition of Perpetuus by Kington Technologies and others.
The Epoch Times didn’t find any official information on Kington Technologies, but according to a Chinese language feature report, the company was also founded by Zhou under the auspices of schemes including the “thousand talents plan” and a similar “3310 plan” launched by the local government in Shanghai.
The report also said the company fell into the “A category” of the 3310 plan, meaning the entrepreneur is awarded a start-up fund of one million yuan (£121,000 or $149,000).
U.S. officials have warned that the Chinese regime uses recruitment programs, such as the “thousand talents plan,” to lure foreign academics to work in China, a process that facilitates the transfer of technology and know-how to the country.
Graphene is a relatively new material, which has 200 times the strength of steel, but is light, potentially superconductive, and can be used in layers just one atom deep. Its applications are still being developed across sectors such as health, aerospace, and electronics.
Perpetuus is a leader in using plasma to add a coating of graphene to polymers.
A previous government statement said that the intervention was because “at least one quarter of all graphene plasma goods and/or services which are supplied in the United Kingdom are supplied by Perpetuus Group.”
