Hello, welcome back. Hopefully you're in the right place. This is Mlex's weekly podcast covering the top

regulatory stories from around the world. I'm James Panicki. It's great to be with you.

Now, we have two separate but equally intriguing yarns for your consideration today.

In just a few minutes' time, we'll tell you why if you're an antitrust lawyer in South Korea,

you shouldn't hydrate before going to a hearing of the Korean Fair Trade Commission.

That's right, with the chance that key hearings will drag on until midnight with not even a moment to spare, there's little time for bathroom breaks.

It sounds trivial, but the KFTC's insistence on one-day hearings is leading to some

disquiet among local companies. And our

correspondent in Seoul will be joining us to chat about the state of play there. But first up,

the latest developments in M&A rules in the UK, which are raising some concern. Deals involving

foreign investors will be facing tough new standards based around national security

priorities. London isn't alone in beefing up its foreign investment regime over such concerns,

and we've seen plenty of other jurisdictions around the world do the same. But the push appears

to be at odds with the Brexit backdrop against which this is all unfolding.

The UK is very keen to encourage foreign investors to part with their cash.

So how to manage this balance?

Simon Zakaria is a senior M-lex correspondent based in London,

and he's been digging around to make sense of this regulatory

uptick and he joins us now okay Simon walk us through this one step at a time what has happened here

hello James well last week the UK government put before UK lawmakers its national security and investment bill.

And this is basically a fundamental reform of the state's powers to screen dealmaking by foreign

companies or investors to protect national security.

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