The proposed transaction would have seen GD Helicopter Finance (GDHF), a company based in Dublin, Ireland, acquire a controlling stake in NHV Group (NHV), a leading provider of business-to-business helicopter services with operations focused on offshore renewable energy, oil and gas, and helicopter maintenance. NHV is headquartered in Ostend, Belgium, and is currently controlled by the French private equity firm Ardian. GDHF is itself controlled by GDAT Group (GDAT), a company headquartered in Shanghai, China, and engaged in general aviation services.

The ISC’s decision has not been made publicly available. In a terse statement issued on 5 August 2026, NHV confirmed that it had been the subject of an ISC decision and that, as a result, the proposed acquisition would not proceed.

According to press reports, the transaction was considered problematic on two distinct grounds. First, a substantial portion of NHV’s activities involves transporting personnel to offshore wind farms and oil and gas platforms in the North Sea — facilities that constitute critical energy infrastructure. Concerns arose that control over NHV could afford GDAT access to sensitive information relating to that infrastructure. Second, and even more delicate, was the prospect of NHV participating as a subcontractor in the maintenance of Airbus H145M helicopters ordered by Belgium for its armed forces and federal police. The indirect involvement of a Chinese entity in such activities was deemed unacceptable from a national security perspective.

Belgium’s military intelligence service, ADIV/SGRS, is understood to have played a decisive role in the review procedure and, ultimately, in bringing about the prohibition of the transaction.

Prior to this case, Belgium’s FDI screening mechanism had given rise to remedial action on only the rarest of occasions. As the ISC’s most recent activity report makes clear, no transaction had previously been blocked, and the few transactions considered to raise concerns resulted in only limited corrective measures (see, VBB Belgian Antitrust Watch of 16 September 2025). It will be instructive to see whether the forthcoming report — covering the period from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026 and expected to be published in September 2026 — reflects a more vigilant and rigorous approach to screening. Both the current geopolitical climate and the entry into force of Regulation 2026/1386 on the screening of foreign investments in the European Union would appear to signal a trend in that direction (see, VBB Belgian Antitrust Watch of 26 June 2026).