Britain for sale british companies in foreign hands the hidden threat to our economy

Contents About the Book About the Author Title Page Dedication Preface Introduction The Thatcher Revolution The Great Financial Free-for-All The Battle of Bournville ICI’s Disappearing Act Brands for Sale Home Services, Overseas Ownership The Export of Transport The Wealth Funds are Coming Living with the Consequences Afterword Appendix: Foreign Purchases of UK Firms: A Timeline of Key Deals Select Bibliography Index Copyright About the Book In 2010 the iconic British chocolate manufacturer Cadbury was taken over by the US food giant Kraft The deal caused a public furore and prompted many to ask whether we should be allowing such a major national enterprise to fall into foreign hands Yet, despite the hand-wringing, there was nothing unusual about what was going on In recent years hundreds of billions of pounds worth of British businesses have been sold off abroad Today, foreign companies control vast swathes of the British economy, from ports to bridges, from the National Lottery to airlines, and from high tech companies to gas and electricity suppliers I n Britain for Sale, award-winning financial journalist Alex Brummer explains why British companies are so irresistible to overseas buyers He considers the impact of foreign deals on Britain’s enterprise culture And he asks the key question: How damaging is the takeover bonanza to our future economic health? About the Author ALEX BRUMMER is one of the UK’s leading financial journalists and commentators After a long and successful stint at the Guardian he moved to the Daily Mail, where he has been City Editor for the past ten years He has won prizes both as a foreign correspondent and as an economics writer, and was named Financial Writer of the Year at the London Press Club in 2010 He is the author of The Crunch and The Great Pensions Robbery ALEX BRUMMER Britain for Sale British Companies in Foreign Hands – the Hidden Threat to Our Economy To Rafi, Natasha and Benjamin, a new generation Preface As a nation we have always been obsessed by ownership Much of the wealth of our great families is tied up in land ownership Huge efforts are made to ensure estates, built up over centuries and decades, are developed and preserved for the next generation The natural inclination of those who have been successful in their careers, whether in business, politics or the professions, is to buy a country home and land The phrase ‘an Englishman’s home is his castle’, first coined in a seventeenth-century law book, is as relevant today as it was then As citizens of the United Kingdom most of us take an enormous pride in the traditions of the country in which we live We may not, like our American cousins, plant the national flag in our gardens or wear the national emblem as lapel badges or brooches But we relish the pageantry of public life, take enormous pride in our public buildings, are generally supportive of the monarchy and follow our national sports teams with pride and passion We define ourselves by our nationality The Americans, despite their fantastic achievements, are viewed with a superior disdain More than six decades after the Second World War we still tend to view Germany with a sceptical eye – never missing a chance to poke fun And we still think that France should be grateful to us for its liberation – which it is not As a nation we also take delight in our commercial and economic success In the boom decade of 1997–2007, politicians and the public lauded the rise of the City as it overtook New York as the world’s most important foreign exchange and banking centre The label ‘Made in Britain’, whether it is on a Burberry raincoat, a Marks & Spencer worsted suit or a pint of locally sourced organic milk, is a source of pride, too Yet, despite all this, we have become extraordinarily careless when it comes to ownership of assets It is astonishing to think that down the decades we have sold off almost everything we associate with Britain’s greatness, from our ports – the source of our maritime traditions – to the electricity companies which provide us with light and warmth Distinctive red London double-decker buses now ply Trafalgar Square and the sights of the capital wearing the livery of Deutsche Bahn, the German rail operator It was not until the autumn of 2009, when the American food company Kraft bid for emblematic chocolate company Cadbury, that any awareness of foreign ownership of apparently British enterprises was kindled A country of chocolate eaters woke up in indignation and remote members of the Cadbury family (who had not been involved in confectionary for generations) took to the airwaves to express their disgust The issue of ownership, for a short time at least, jumped to the top of the political agenda No one could have been more pleased by the sudden upsurge of pride in Cadbury than me As City Editor of the Daily Mail (and before that the Guardian) I had been a strident critic of foreign ownership for almost two decades Both papers indulged my interest and allowed me to write widely on the subject In the financial community my opposition and latterly that of the Daily Mail to overseas ownership was regarded as a form of xenophobia Communications advisers to the companies in the sights of overseas buyers let it be known to clients that the Daily Mail’s views did not represent those of the wider business community and were a kind of foible What the critics tended to forget is that the Daily Mail has more business readers than almost any other national newspaper Moreover, the deluge of emails, letters and comments received from readers and business has been overwhelmingly supportive of our stand Nevertheless, the zeitgeist remained intact As far as those in authority were concerned, in free and global markets the tide of capital was not to be stemmed What was in the interest of global finance was also in the national interest, even if it meant boards responding to short-termism Somehow, the contrast between the permanence of personal ownership – as in the nurture and care of land – and short-termism of the stock markets was not properly understood or debated There was little awareness of the command and control which is lost when national treasures, whether they be the department store Harrods or the chemical giant ICI, are disposed of to the highest bidder It is the natural order of things that companies with headquarters overseas put their own interests first in much the same way as the gentry view keeping ownership of their land in the family as vital This book was inspired by the upsurge of interest in ownership triggered by the battle of Cadbury But it seeks to probe deeper It looks at the conditions which allowed Britain to become the favourite destination for overseas predators, the indifference of our policymakers, their neglect of our economic security and the impact on efforts to rebalance commerce in favour of making things after the financial panic of 2007–2009 In bringing this endeavour to fruition I have been greatly helped by a number of people My editor at the Daily Mail Paul Dacre has given me the freedom of the paper to write about selling Britain short Associate City Editor Ruth Sutherland has adjusted her diary to help me in my book-writing activities and reinforced my views on the need to nurture manufacturing City Office secretary Edwina O’Reilly assisted in the organisation of interviews This project was taken forward with great enthusiasm by Jonny Pegg of Jonathan Pegg Literary Agency who recognised the importance of the material He turned, for the third time (after publishing The Crunch and The Great Pensions Robbery), to Nigel Wilcockson of Random House who embraced the idea warmly As editor Nigel has been tough, thorough, sensible, meticulous and inspirational I frequently hear from fellow authors of editors who show little interest in the narrative Nigel is the opposite, taking an interest in every chapter and every draft I also owe a debt of gratitude to Norman Hayden, my collaborator for a trio of books, who undertook much of the early research on this project My family have also played a critical part My wife Tricia has been with me all the way on this book which has disrupted family holidays in Majorca, Crete and at home I cannot thank her enough Other family members, notably Justin and Gabriel, technical teams always at hand to assist with computer, communications and research snags, also deserve credit My daughter Jessica, her husband Dan and their three children have taken a keen interest in this piece of work throughout Suffice it to say a book, with as much takeover detail in it as this, is bound to contain mistakes Certainly, many of the bids and deals considered will have been viewed very differently by the participants from the interpretation presented here There should be no doubt that responsibility for views expressed and any errors rests with me alone Alex Brummer, March 2012 Introduction It was a crisp, typically autumnal morning when the eight-seater private jet landed at Luton Airport It was immediately met by a chauffeur-driven limousine The group stepping out of the £30 million Gulfstream G550 was led by a dark-haired, diminutive, trim and immaculately turned-out woman To the casual eye she cut an unassuming middle-aged, middle-class figure Dressed in a black suit, she looked like a mother comfortable with the school run, doing the weekly shopping or at a charity lunch with fellow fund-raisers Impressions, however, were misleading, for the woman slipping into Britain almost unnoticed on this particular day was the hard-headed boss of one of the world’s major conglomerates Indeed, as she arrived news broke that she had become second only to Michelle Obama – but ahead of Oprah Winfrey – on the Forbes’ List of the world’s most powerful women Irene Rosenfeld, Chairman and CEO of American corporate giant Kraft Foods, and the woman who bought Cadbury, was back in town Some eight months earlier her protracted struggle to take over Cadbury had finally ended in victory The tough New Yorker, who owns to being a fan of Creme Eggs and Curly Wurlys, had landed the prize she wanted most She believed Cadbury, whose chocolate and other confectionery brands were known the world over, could drive a stagnant Kraft Foods towards profitable growth, and was prepared to pay £11.5 billion to back her hunch In snapping up Cadbury, however, Rosenfeld had become a hated figure in Britain Cadbury was regarded as a quintessentially British company with a proud Quaker legacy and a reputation for both business success and philanthropy Kraft was viewed as an unworthy wooer, a foreign behemoth that was seeking to mask its struggle to grow by taking over a healthier company Fears had been voiced about the risks a Kraft takeover might pose for Cadbury’s future, for British jobs, and for Britain’s overall economic health These fears had seemed justified when Rosenfeld announced in February 2010 that Kraft would be closing Cadbury’s Somerdale factory at Keynsham near Bristol and transferring jobs to Poland – having said in October 2009 that the factory would be kept open In addition, the future of a key research and development base at Reading had been put in doubt The commonly held view was that a foreign interloper such as Kraft was not to be trusted No doubt Rosenfeld was dwelling on all this controversy as she sped to Cadbury’s spiritual heartland on October 2010 People at Bournville weren’t just worried about job security The wider community had benefited from all that Cadbury had done over the years, using its chocolate wealth to fund schools and colleges, hospitals, convalescent homes, churches, housing and sports facilities Would this all go with the takeover? Ahead of Rosenfeld’s arrival, a 3.5 per cent pay rise backdated to March had been announced, along with assurances that there would be no more compulsory redundancies for at least two years She must have hoped that this would lead to a measure of good will She arrived at Bournville amid something of a ‘publicity blackout’ as to her precise movements Looking energetic and enthusiastic, she stepped out of her car into a setting that reflected the subtly changing face of Bournville: the lamp posts outside the factory were still the famous Cadbury purple and the Union flag still flew, but in the reception area of the main building Kraft branding was beginning to edge its way in Rosenfeld did not talk to union representatives during her visit, preferring to meet management and a pre-selected group of employees Orders went out that nobody should speak to the press, and by lunchtime rumours around Bournville were rife: one had it that Rosenfeld was meeting all staff at 3.30 p.m., while another suggested she had already gone back to the US Little is known of what was said at Bournville that day, although a question-and-answer session is thought to have taken place While there, Rosenfeld took time to have lunch at the famous Cadbury World tourist attraction and reportedly served cucumber sandwiches and tea to residents of a Birmingham hostel Then, her whistle-stop tour over, she left again, saying that she had been ‘inspired’ by what she saw She was later reported as saying: ‘We certainly understand that Bournville will remain at the heart and soul of our chocolate business and we are delighted about that I think the key for us, though, is that this is a global business We need to ensure that we are competitive on a global basis.’ Cadbury, with worldwide sales of £37 billion, certainly promised that The furore surrounding the Kraft takeover of Cadbury has subsided now But the whole affair raised important questions – about British attitudes to home-grown businesses, about foreign involvement in British industry, about the future shape of the British economy – that are highly pertinent today Britain is unique among developed nations in having a very relaxed attitude to foreign ownership But is that the right view? In our pursuit of the banking and services sectors, have we turned our backs on manufacturing? Indeed, in an era of increasing economic uncertainty, ought we to be concerned that so much of our economy is no longer in our hands? foreign takeover policy 112–13, 198 Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher 69 GKN plc 105 Glas Cymru 41 Glasenburg, Ivan 29 GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 116–18 Glazer family 44, 128–30 Glazer, Malcolm 42, 128 Glenboden 65 Glencore International plc 29 Global Crossing Ltd 195 Global Infrastructure Partners 168 Global Insight 202 GMB union 142 Goldman Sachs 22, 23, 66, 75, 179, 183 Goldsmith, James 31–2 Goodyear 32 Goodyear, Charles 197 Google 89 Greece, sovereign debt crisis 48 Green, Sir Philip 80 Greening, Justine 175 Greenspan, Alan 37, 50 Grosvenor House Hotel 122–3 Grube, Rüdiger 172 Guardian (newspaper) x Gulf of Mexico spillage disaster (2010) 113–14 Gulliver, Stuart 88 Halifax Bank of Scotland see HBOS Hamleys 30, 47 Hammond, Philip 177 Hampel, Sir Ronald 97, 100 Hanson conglomerate 31, 97 Hanson, James Edward, Baron Hanson 31, 88, 97 HarperCollins 31 Harrods xi, 30, 122 Harvey Nichols 122 Harvey-Jones, John 96 Hastings Diversified Utilities Fund 160 Hastings Fund Management 160 Hatfield rail crash 170 Hattersley, Roy Sydney George, Baron Hattersley 13 Hawker-Siddeley Hayden, Norman xii Hayek, Friedrich 12 HBOS 80–1, 211 Heathrow Airport 165–7 Terminal 167 Heathrow Express 166 Helicopter Museum, Weston-super-Mare 106 Helm, Dieter 182 Henderson, Sir Denys 97 Henkel 95, 102 Herbert Smith LLP 69 Hershey’s 67 Cadbury takeover bid 72 collaboration with Cadbury 73 Hewlett-Packard 106, 210 takeover of Autonomy 106, 110 High Speed One (HS1) railway 174, 210 High Speed Two (HS2) railway 175–6 Higher Education Policy Institution 107 Hilton, Anthony 110 Hinchliffe, Susan 69 Ho, Ching 197 Hogg, Sarah, Viscountess Hailsham 66 Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) 193 Hoogovens see Koninklijke Hoogovens Horrell, Jonathan 86 House of Fraser 47, 122 Howden (Charter International plc) 210 Howe, Geoffrey 19, 20 HSBC (Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation) 5–7, 23, 88 RBS takeover bid 5–7 Huhne, Chris 163 Hutchinson Whampoa Ltd 183 Hutton, Will 52, 136, 211 Iberdrola 90, 112, 145, 147, 154 Iberia Airlines 112 IBM 51, 195 Iceland 46 Icelandic financial crisis of 2008 46–7 Iceland Foods Ltd 47 ICI (Imperial Chemical Industries) xi, 7, 30, 38 takeover bid by Hanson conglomerate 97 history of 96–9 takeover by AkzoNobel 93–6, 100–3 ICIS (magazine) 99 ICL (International Computers Limited) Illgen, Richard 62 Independent Commission on Banking 214 Independent (newspaper) 166 Industrial Reorganisation Corporation ING (International Netherlands Group) 23 Innogy plc 144 Institute of Fiscal Studies 142 Interbrand survey 128 Interest Equalisation Tax 21 International Monetary Fund 13 International Petroleum Investment Company 198 International Power plc 112, 144 IRA (Irish Republican Army) 12 Iran 161, 162 IRS (Internal Revenue Service) 86 Israel 192 Issigonis, Alec 125 ITT Corporation 9–10 J Sainsbury plc 32, 192 J C Flowers & Co 210 J P Morgan 22, 23, 67 J S Fry & Sons 57 Jaguar Land Rover 52, 82, 207 Japan 11, 201 integrated national system 11 sovereign wealth funds 194 Jonathan Pegg Literary Agency xii Jones, Sarah 69 Joseph, Sir Keith 12 J-Phone (Japan) 108 Juventus F.C 196 JW Marriot Hotels 123 Kaiser Cement 31 Kearton, Frank Kemble Water Ltd 160 Kennedy, Edward 31 Kennedy, John Fitzgerald 21 Kent Reliance Building Society 210 King, Sir Mervyn 41, 116 Kings Supermarkets 32 KKR (Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co) 86, 121 Kleinwort Benson 23 Kolster-Brandes Ltd 10 Koninklijke Hoogovens 19, 123 Kraft 34, 38, 45, 53, 199 Cheltenham headquarters 84 history of 59–60 General Foods merger 61 Kraft Music Hall 60 Kraft-Phenix Cheese Corporation 60 Kraft Television Theatre 60 Nabisco merger 61 Suchard merger 60, 61 takeover by Philip Morris 61 takeover of Cadbury x, 1–3, 59, 64–86, 92, 203–4 Terry’s of York merger 59, 61, 76–7 Tobler merger 60, 61 Zurich headquarters 85, 86 Kraft, James Lewis 60 Kuwait Investment Authority 192, 193 sovereign wealth funds 192 Labour government Attlee administration Blair administration 35, 39–40, 91, 111, 116, 125, 137, 143, 148–9, 151 Brown administration 152, 162, 206 Callaghan administration 13 nationalisation 10 Wilson administration Ladbroke Grove rail crash 170 Laidlaw, Sam 152 Lambert, Richard 108, 110, 136, 212 Land Securities Group plc 191 Langeled gas pipeline 150 Langerman, Peter 74 Laurance, Ben 86 Lawson, Nigel 19, 20 Lazard Ltd 69, 75 Le Crossing Company 178 Leahy, Sir Terry 131 Lee, David 140 Lee, Hsien Loong 197 Legal & General Investment Management 69–70 Lehman Brothers 22, 23, 34, 47, 206 Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher 194 Lenovo Group Limited 51, 195 Lerner, Randy 127 Leschley, Jan 117 Letwin, Shirley 13 Leunig, Tim 126, 181 Li, Ka-shing 160, 183 Libya, sovereign wealth funds 196 Linde–British Oxygen takeover 110 Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) 162 Lloyds TSB 26 takeover of HBOS 80–1 London Array wind farm 144 London Electricity Board (LEB) 143, 145 London Evening Standard (newspaper) 28 London School of Economics (LSE) 29, 43, 96, 107, 115, 129, 132–3, 178, 191 Borsa Italiana merger 133 Macquarie Bank takeover bid 132 NASDAQ takeover bid 132 Lonrho plc 217 Lords and Commons National Security Strategy Committee 185 L’Oréal 121 Loudon, Felicity 78 Luff, Peter 83 Macquarie Bank 29 equity fund 138, 160 Magnier, John 129 Major, John 17, 206 Manchester City F C 127 Manchester United F C 38, 42, 128–30 Glazer buyout 129 Initial Public Offering 130 Old Trafford 130 payment in kind (PIK) loans 42, 129 Mandelson, Peter Benjamin, Baron Mandelson 71, 79, 124, 171, 203–4, Mannesman 108, 112 Marks & Spencer 32, 80 Mars–Wrigley 73 Massey, Ray 171 Matthews, Colin 166 Maxwell House 60 McAdam, John 93 McDonald’s 126 McGuire, Stryker 25 McInnerney, Thomas 60 McKillop, Sir Tom 97, 98 McLaren Group 126 McLevish, Tim 65 McManus, John Patrick 129 Merkel, Angela 198 Merrill Lynch 22, 23 Financial Centre 199 Merseyrail 172 Meschi, Meloria 79 Metromedia (media company) 31 MG Rover Group 51 Micro Focus International Ltd 210 Mid Kent Water 160 MidAmerican Energy Holdings 154 Midland Bank plc 23, 32 Miller Smith, Charles 98–9 Minford, Patrick 13 Mini motor car 125 Hams Hall plant 126 Mischkonzerns Sistema 198 Mitchells & Butlers plc 65 Mond, Sir Alfred 96 Monopolies and Mergers Commission (MMC) 7, Morgan Grenfell & Co 23 Morgan Stanley 22, 23, 66 Murdoch, Rupert 31, 113, 211 Mutual Series 74 N M Rothschild & Sons Ltd 23 Nabisco 61 Nanjing Automobile Corporation 51–2 NASDAQ 29, 133 National Australian Bank 27 National Carriers (UK) 14 National Dairy Products Corporation (USA) 60 National Express Group plc (UK) 173 National Freight Corporation (NFC) (UK) 14 National Grid (UK) 154–5 National Health Service (NHS) 10 National Lottery (UK) 198 National Power (UK) 144 nationalisation 10, 13 Nederlandse Spoorwegen (Dutch Railways) 172 NedRailways South Central Ltd 172 neo-liberalism 12 Nestlé 67, 72, 73, 74, 113, 126 takeover of Rowntree 76 Network Rail 169–70, 174 New Statesman (magazine) 13 New York Post (newspaper) 31 New York Public Service Commission 155 New York Stock Exchange 133 News of the World (newspaper) 31, 211 NHP plc 140 NICE decade 41–2, 44, 116 Nippon Glass 118, 123 Nissan 109, 207 Nobel Industries 7, 96 Nobel, Alfred 93 Norges Bank 192 Norman, Guy 69 North Sea oil 150, 161 Northern Rock 48 Northumbrian Water 160 Norway Government Pension Fund 193 sovereign wealth funds 192, 200 Novartis 98 npower 144 nuclear power 150–2 O’Brien, Michael 151 O’Leary, Michael 44 O’Neill, Brendan 98–9 O2 90, 108, 109 Obama, Barack 113 Oberthur Technologies 211 Observer (newspaper) 52 OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) 204 Office of National Statistics (UK) 103, 121 Ofgem (Office of Gas and Electricity Markets) 141, 146, 161 Retail Market Review 146 OFT (Office of Fair Trading) 137, 180, 204 Ofwat 141, 158, 159, 161 Old Trafford 130 Olympics 2012, London 191, 199 Olympics 2016, Chicago 62 OMX 29, 132 Onex Corporation 118, 210 Ontario Teachers’ State Pension Fund 199 Orange 108, 109 Osanloo, Michael 65, 67 Osborne, George 45, 117, 208 Oxford Review of Economic Policy 182 P&O (Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company) 43, 114, 162, 179–80, 184 PacifiCorp 154 Panel on Takeovers and Mergers 91 Patel, Dr Chai 140 Patten, Christopher Francis, Baron Patten of Barnes 66 Patton, George 68 Peabody Energy Corporation 31 Pearson Publishing Group 196 Pegg, Jonathan xii Peltz, Nelson 58, 74 Peoples Department Stores 32 PepsiCo 62, 112 Pessina, Stefano 86, 121 Peston, Robert 160 Peugeot 82 Philip Morris International 61 Philips, Melanie 165 Phoenix Consortium 51 phone hacking scandal 211 Pickfords Removals 14 Pickfords Travel 14 Pilkington Group Ltd 76, 118, 123 Pilkington–Tokyo Glass takeover 110 Poon, Dr Dickson 122 Potash Corporation 114 Potters Bar rail crash 170 Powell, Enoch 12 Powergen 144, 145 Premier League football 127 PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) 87, 206 Prospect union 151 Qatar 150, 160, 187–8, 189–92 Challenger 199 Investment Authority 68, 160, 199 Diar Consortium 187–8, 191 Holdings 122 Investment Authority 68, 160, 199 sovereign wealth funds 191–2, 199, 200 Radford, Amoree 81–2 Railtrack 169–70 Randolph, Jan 202 Reagan, Ronald 16 Real Madrid C F 127 Red Football Ltd 129 Reid, Nick 66 Renault 82 Renfe (Red Nacional de Ferrocarriles Españoles) 173 Richardson, Gordon Rio Tinto 217 Rising Sun (Michael Crichton) 194 RMC (Ready Mix Cement) 52 Roadline UK 14 Robertson, John 147 Robey, Simon 66 Roddick, Anita 121 Roels, Harry 158 Rogers, Richard George, Baron Rogers of Riverside 187 Rolling Stock Operating Companies 169 Rolls-Royce 16, 30, 113, 126, 153, 204, 207, 216 Rootes-Chrysler 82 Rosenfeld, Irene 1–3, 61–6, 67, 71, 72–3, 74, 75, 78, 79 Rover Company 9, 125 Rowland, Roland ‘Tiny’ 122 Rowntree 30 takeover by Nestlé 76 Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) 5–7, 45 bailout 45 funding of Kraft bid for Cadbury 72 takeover bid by HSBC 5–7 Rudge, Sir Alan 109 Ruhrgas 153 pipeline 148 Russia 193 gas supply to Europe 147–50 sovereign wealth funds 195–6, 197, 201 foreign takeover policy 113 Rüstow, Alexander 12 RWE (Rheinisch-Westfälisches Elektrizitätswerk) 144, 145, 150, 153, 154, 157–60 Ryanair 44 S G Warburg & Co 23 SAFE Investment Company 193 Sahaviriya Steel Industries (SSI) 124 Saïd Business School 90 Sainsbury’s see J Sainsbury Saint-Gobain S A 136 Salomon Brothers 22, 23 SAMA Holdings 193 Samsung Group 131 Samuel Montagu & Co 23 Sandberg, Michael 6–7 Santander 26–7, 90 Sarbanes-Oxley Act (2002) 47 Sarkozy, Nicolas 198 Saudi Arabia, sovereign wealth funds 193 Savoy Hotel 123 Schroders plc 23 Schwarzman, Stephen 138 Schweppes 57 SCM Corporation 31 Scorer, Adam 156 Scott Wilson Group 210 Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) 156 Scottish Development Agency Scottish Nationalists Scottish Office Scottish Power 90, 112, 147, 154 securitisation 36–48 Selfridges 121 September 11th terrorist attacks 36–7 Serco 172 Severn Bridge 178 Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) 51–2 Shard of Glass (building) 192 Sherman & Sterling LLP 69 Shire Pharmaceuticals 88 Shrimpton, Alan 56 Siemens 177, 207 Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation 105 Silicon Fen 106 Silicon Valley 105 Simpson, Derek 82 Singapore sovereign wealth funds 193, 197, 199 Temasek 197, 199 Singer 126 Slaughter and May 69 Smith New Court plc 23 SmithKline Beecham 117 SNCF (Sociộtộ Nationale des Chemins de fer franỗais) 171, 174, 176 Snyder, Michael 29 Société Générale S A 22 Sony 209 Sorrell, Sir Martin 88 Sotheby’s auction house 217 South Bank University 79 South East Water 160 South Korea, National Pensions Fund 168 Southall rail crash 170 Southampton Airport 166 Southern Cross 138–41 sovereign debt crisis (2010–11) 27, 48, 193 Sovereign Risk 202 sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) 189–202 Spagnolini, Bruno 106 Spain football clubs 127 foreign takeover policy 112 UK acquisitions 145 UK takeover bids 90, 109, 145 Standard Chartered Bank 6–7, 199 Stansted Airport 167, 168 Steinbrück, Peer 198 Sterling, Jeffrey, Baron Sterling of Plaistow 180, 185 Stitzer, Todd 59, 66–7, 69, 70, 76 Strategic Rail Authority 173 structured debt see securitisation Sturany, Klaus 158 sub-prime housing boom 39, 180 Suchard 60, 61 Sun (newspaper) 31 Sunderland, John 114 Swann-Hunter Swiss Banking Corporation 23 Sykes, Sir Richard 117 Syngenta 98 Takeover Code 84, 91, 213 Takeover Panel 212–13, 215 Tata 52, 118 takeover of Corus 123–4 Tata, Ratan 123 Tate & Lyle 210 Telefonica 90, 109 ‘Tell Sid’ advertising campaign 16 Temasek 197, 199 Tempco International 14 Terra Firma (private equity firm) 209 Terry’s of York 59, 61, 76 Tesco 59, 131 malls in China 132 Samsung Tesco Homeplus 131 Tesco Lotus 131 Texas Pacific 40 Thames Water 157–60 Thameslink 177, 207 Thatcher and Thatcherism (Eric J Evans) 12 Thatcher, Margaret 7, 11–15, 22, 30–1, 33 Thatcherism 12–15 TheCityUK 89 Thomas Cook 30 Thomson Reuters 121 Three Mile Island 150 TMX (Canadian Stock Exchange) 115 Tobler 60, 61 Tognum 113 Tomkins plc 118, 210 Toshiba 151 Toyota 207 Trade Union Congress (TUC) Train Wales 171 Transport Watch UK 174 Travel London 173 Trenitalia 173 TSB (Trustees Savings Bank) 26 UBS (Union Bank of Switzerland) 23, 66 UK Takeover Panel 83 UniCredit Bank 196 Unite union 91 United Alkali 7, 96 United Arab Emirates 180 United Business Media 88 United States of America Committee on Foreign Investment (CFIUS) 195 debt 200–1 foreign takeover policy 113 mortgage meltdown 36 Sarbanes-Oxley Act 47 sale of Treasury bonds to China 50 sub-prime housing boom 39, 180 utility companies in the UK 142 United Utilities of Australia 160 Universal Music 209 Unocal (Union Oil Company of California) 113, 195 van de Burgh, Maarten 93, 94 Vauxhall Motors 8, 126 VEBA 153 Venkey’s Group 127 Veolia 160 Verizon Wireless 108 VIAG 153 Vickers Vickers, Sir John 214 VINCI Group 177–8 Virgin Trains 173 Vivendi S A 209 Vneshtorgbank (VTB) 196 Vodafone 108, 112 Vodafone–Mannesmann takeover 108, 112 Walker, Bob 100 Wall Street (film) 32 Wallis, Ed 145 Walmart 59, 136 Walters, Alan 12 Warner Lambert Co 58 Weinstock, Arnold, Baron Weinstock 9, 176 Wellcome pharmaceutical company 117 Welsh Water 41 Wessex Water 160 West Coast Main Line 170, 173 Westinghouse 151–2 Westland 8, 105 Weston, Galen Willard Gordon 122 WestQuay 199 Which? (consumer watchdog) 156 White, Gordon, Baron White of Hull 31, 97 Whyte, Geoff 76 Wijers, Hans 94, 103 Wilcockson, Nigel xii Williams & Glyn’s Bank Wilson, Harold windfall tax 143 Wittington Investments 122 Witty, Andrew 117 Work Foundation think tank 136 World Bank 52, 182 Worldcom 47 WPP plc 88 Xcel Energy 144 Yeung, Carson 127 Yorkshire Bank 27 Yorkshire Power 144, 145 YTL Power International 160 Zeneca 98–100 Zilius, Jan 158 This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly Version 1.0 Epub ISBN 9781448136810 www.randomhouse.co.uk Published by Random House Business Books 2012 10 Copyright © Alex Brummer 2012 Alex Brummer has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work First published in Great Britain in 2012 by Random House Business Books Addresses for companies within the Random House Group can be found at www.randomhouse.co.uk The Random House Group Limited Reg No 954009 A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 9781847940759 ... The Great Pensions Robbery ALEX BRUMMER Britain for Sale British Companies in Foreign Hands – the Hidden Threat to Our Economy To Rafi, Natasha and Benjamin, a new generation Preface As a nation... home-grown businesses, about foreign involvement in British industry, about the future shape of the British economy – that are highly pertinent today Britain is unique among developed nations in. .. manufacturers Ford and General Motors, for example, were able to become embedded in the UK, bringing with them in the process American-style production line techniques Nor was the UK blind to the potential