A group of companies aims to acquire Perpetuus Carbon, the UK may block the deal

A group of companies, led by Taurus International Ltd, has announced a planned acquisition (officially a merger) of UK-based graphene-developer Perpetuus Carbon Technologies.

No financial details were announced, but the UK's Secretary of State issued a public interest intervention notice to intervene in the proposed transaction - citing national security concerns. The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will prepare a report on the proposed transaction, by 7 February 2022.

We do not have many details on this yet. This is an interesting development, and it's not clear why the UK is concerned with this deal. It could be that Perpetuus is involved with UK defense projects, and it could be the the UK is concerned about any acquisitions in the local graphene industry.

Perpetuus entered the graphene market in 2014 has been quiet for a couple of years. The company has been involved with graphene inks (which is sells in collaboration with the Heraeus Group) and is also actively developing and supplying graphene materials for tire makers. In 2018 it announced successful trials of graphene-enhanced tires - with an average increase of 40% in wear resistance. In 2019 it announced a long-term supply agreement with Vittoria Tires.