Government-backed battery maker A123 Systems Inc. has yet to hear whether its proposed sale to China's Wanxiang Group will pass muster before the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, but in the absence of a fast "no," the plan is to move ahead with the first stage of the deal this week, a lawyer for the A123 said on Tuesday, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Speaking at a hearing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., A123 attorney Caroline Reckler, who is with Latham & Watkins LLP, said that A123 may hear something from the foreign investment review panel soon about the controversial sale, which critics say presents a potential danger to national security. Headed by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, the foreign investment committee reviews transactions that could put a U.S. business under foreign control. Due to the large taxpayer investment and the advanced technology in A123's advanced battery business, the sale to Wanxiang has drawn fire from critics including Sens. Chuck Grassley (Iowa) and John Thune (S.D.).
