Howard, Grumpy Pa and Alistair,
We cannot complain about foreign ownership of UK assets when UK companies have massive overseas earnings from their overseas investments, earnings which are taxed in the UK. I believe about 40% of the UK Corporation Tax paid is on foreign earnings.
Don't disagree with what you say John.
I watch the foreign ownership of UK business with concern because the thing you do export is the decision making process which may often contain an unacknowledged bias. I do not mean this in a rude way in this example, actually I quite admire this example. Look at the car world, VW retaining manufacturing in Germany, where will they close plants? How does the strong German ownership (banks) a strong workforce council, good cultural alignment and the strength of the brand adjust a given decision? However it means external factories will be put at the front of the firing queue in tough times. Given we have a number of car transplants (Toyota, Nissan, where did Honda go?) it becomes a risk? (sorry that was written in a few separate sessions so may be messy)
Just as well the boys making cars up north are good at what they do!
I have no idea what we still own abroad and how this stands.
