Image Source ：China Visual

BEIJING, August 22 (TMTPOST) -- Shanghai UniVista Industrial Software Group's attempt to take over British software company Pulsic Limited has been terminated by British regulators on the grounds of national security concerns.

Last Friday, Shanghai UniVista Industrial Software Group stated that it reached an agreement with the shareholders of Pulsic Limited around the end of 2021 and submitted to the British Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy a voluntary filing for the acquisition under the National Security and Investment Act in January 2022. It provided all the information required for the review. The company regretted that the Britain authority issued an unfavorable decision on the filing last Wednesday.

Kwasi Kwarteng, Secretary of State at the British Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, issued a final order last Wednesday to prevent Super Orange HK Holding Limited, a subsidiary of Nanjing Puxin Software Limited, from acquiring the British electronic design automation company Pulsic. The order stated that Super Orange HK could use the intellectual property and technology of Pulsic's electronic design automation (EDA) products to build cutting-edge integrated circuits that could be used in a civilian or military supply chain.

EDA are a category of tools including software and hardware that can assist engineers in creating and testing new chip designs.

Founded in January 2000, Pulsic is a privately held company headquartered in Bristol, UK, with offices in San Jose, CA and Tokyo, Japan. According to its website, the company specializes in Precision Design Automation and offers production-proven floor planning, placement, and routing software solutions for extreme design challenges at advanced nodes.

Incorporated in August 2021, software company Super Orange HK is controlled by a little-known company, China's domestic EDA maker Shanghai-based UniVista Industrial Software Group, which is the buyer behind the acquisition. Computer programming developer Nanjing Puxin Software Limited, reportedly owned by Shanghai UniVista Industrial Software Group, established Super Orange HK in August 2021.

This is the second time the British government has used the National Security and Investment Act to veto a Chinese acquisition. In April 2021, Britain passed the National Security and Investment Act, which allowed the British government to review foreign transactions in 17 sensitive industries, including artificial intelligence, computer hardware, advanced materials and key government suppliers, if the acquirer was hostile to the British national security or had ties to a hostile country or organization.