The UK government has blocked the takeover of a British electronic design company by a Hong Kong-based firm, citing national security grounds.

Britain's business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, used the National Security and Investment Act to bar the takeover of Pulsic by Super Orange Hong Kong, saying the order was “necessary and proportionate to mitigate the risk to national security”.

It is one of the first times the legislation has been used since it was approved in January.

Pulsic is a private company that specialises in electronic design automation (EDA) and its software is used to build circuits for supply chain use.

Kwarteng's order said there was potential for Pulsic's EDA tools to be "exploited to introduce features into the design, including automatically and/or without knowledge of the user that could be used to build defence or technological capabilities".