Rishi Sunak Gives His Blessing to Foreign Firms Taking Over British Firms | Rishi Sunak

Rishi Sunak has blessed a multibillion-pound trend that has seen foreign private equity firms take over UK businesses, describing the buying spree as “good news” for the economy.

The Chancellor was speaking at the launch of Treasury Connect, an event designed to bring together fast-growing tech companies with investors and politicians to spur innovation in areas such as fintech and life sciences.

Addressing a trend that has seen overseas buyout companies target the UK for buyouts, with Morrisons supermarket set to be the last to fall, Sunak said: “We have always been an economy that benefits from investments.

“I would take this as a sign of confidence in the UK. This is good news for our economy.

Foreign private investors spent nearly £ 25bn on UK companies between early 2021 and mid-August, according to Dealogic figures, compared to £ 28bn for all of 2020 and £ 30bn in 2019. That figure exceeded £ 42 billion. inclusion of minority stakes, a record since Dealogic began monitoring data in 2005.

Morrisons, the UK’s fourth-largest supermarket chain, is closing in on a £ 7bn takeover by US private equity group Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, while private equity firm Cobham has agreed to buy defense firm Ultra Electronics for £ 2.6 billion.

Well-known names that have already been sucked into private equity since the start of the pandemic include supermarket group Asda, roadside assistance company AA, infrastructure company John Laing and insurer LV, among others. .

The Chancellor hailed the trend by launching a campaign to increase investment in high-tech companies at the Treasury Connect event in the Olympic Village in Stratford, London.

Sunak focused heavily on technology during his tenure, through policies which the Treasury says are aimed at making the UK a “science superpower.”

These include the launch of a Future Fund which has seen the government take stakes in more than 150 companies, according to new data released on Tuesday.

In addition to the tech champions, they include a kombucha drink maker, custom ship builder, and knit and crochet supplier.

The fund also includes 375 million euros earmarked for investment in breakthrough ‘game-changing’ technology.

Sunak said the government is creating the conditions for the UK to host technology companies that can compete with the Silicon Valley giants.

He said this is happening through the Future Fund, as well as through initiatives such as Treasury Connect to help them access funding and political encouragement for pension funds to invest in riskier and faster growing companies.

But he declined to comment on the £ 29 billion buyout of Cambridge-based Arm by US firm Nvidia, which raised concerns over the UK’s inability to retain national control of the companies. foreground.

Arm is already owned by Japanese firm SoftBank, but the proposed deal with Nvidia has fueled fears about sustaining investment and jobs in the UK.

When asked if he would accept SoftBank’s listing with Arm in the UK if the deal with Nvidia crumbles, Sunak said he couldn’t comment on an ongoing process, but said he ‘In general’ he wanted to make the UK an attractive place for business.

Sunak has already decided to relax the listing rules in the hopes that London can compete for lucrative and prestigious fleets of tech champions.

The Deliveroo takeaway app list helped Sunak kick off the policy, while life sciences group Oxford Nanopore, whose DNA sequencing technology was taken over by the UK government and used to track variants of the virus, has since announced its own London float of £ 2.4 billion.