London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Oct 29, 2025

Rishi Sunak gives blessing to foreign firms snapping up UK businesses

Rishi Sunak gives blessing to foreign firms snapping up UK businesses

Multibillion-pound private equity trend is ‘sign of confidence’ in UK companies, says chancellor
Rishi Sunak has given his blessing to a multibillion-pound trend that has seen foreign private equity firms snap up British businesses, describing the buying spree as “good news” for the economy.

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

Addressing a trend in which overseas buyers target UK firms, with supermarket Morrisons set to be the latest to fall, Sunak said: “We’ve always been an economy that benefits from investment in it.

“I would view it as a sign of confidence in the UK. It’s good news for our economy.”

Private equity investors from abroad spent nearly £25bn on British firms between the start of 2021 and mid-August, according to figures from Dealogic, compared with £28bn for the whole of 2020 and £30bn in 2019. The figure was more than £42bn factoring in minority stakes, a record since Dealogic began tracking the data in 2005.

Morrisons, the UK’s fourth-largest supermarket chain, is edging closer to a £7bn takeover by the US private equity group Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, while private equity-owned Cobham has agreed to buy defence company Ultra Electronics for £2.6bn.

Household names that have already been snapped up by private equity since the start of the pandemic include the supermarket group Asda, the roadside assistance company AA, the infrastructure firm John Laing and the insurer LV, among many others.

The chancellor welcomed the trend as he launched a drive to stoke greater investment in cutting-edge technology firms at the event in the Olympic Village in Stratford, east London.

Sunak has focused heavily on technology during his tenure, via policies that the Treasury says are intended to make the UK a “science superpower”.

These include the launch of a Future Fund that involves the government taking stakes in more than 150 businesses, according to new data released on Tuesday.

As well as tech champions, they include a kombucha drinks maker, a bespoke shipbuilder plus a knitting and crochet supplier.

The fund also includes £375m ringfenced for investment in “gamechanging” breakthrough technology.

Sunak said the government was creating the conditions for the UK to host tech businesses capable of rivalling Silicon Valley giants.

He said this was happening via the Future Fund, as well as through initiatives such as Treasury Connect to help them access finance and political encouragement for pension funds to invest in riskier, fast-growing businesses.

But he declined to comment on the £29bn takeover of Cambridge-based Arm by US firm Nvidia, which has raised concerns about the UK’s inability to retain domestic control of world-leading businesses.

Arm is already owned by Japan’s SoftBank but the proposed Nvidia deal has fuelled fears about whether investment and jobs will stay in the UK.

Asked if he would welcome SoftBank listing Arm in the UK if the Nvidia deal collapses, Sunak said he could not comment on an ongoing process but said that “in general” he wanted to make the UK an attractive place for companies to go public.

Sunak has already moved to ease stock market listing rules in the hope that London can compete for lucrative and prestigious floats of tech champions.

Takeaway app Deliveroo’s listing helped Sunak launch the policy, while life sciences group Oxford Nanopore, whose DNA sequencing technology was snapped up by the UK government and used to track virus variants, has since announced its own £2.4bn London float.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
UK Retail Inflation Slows as Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since Spring
Next Raises Full-Year Profit Guidance After Strong Third-Quarter Performance
Reform UK’s Lee Anderson Admits to 'Gaming' Benefits System While Advocating Crackdown
United States and South Korea Conclude Major Trade Accord Worth $350 Billion
Hurricane Melissa Strikes Cuba After Devastating Jamaica With Record Winds
Vice President Vance to Headline Turning Point USA Campus Event at Ole Miss
U.S. Targets Maritime Narco-Routes While Border Pressure to Mexico Remains Limited
Bill Gates at 70: “I Have a Real Fear of Artificial Intelligence – and Also Regret”
Elon Musk Unveils Grokipedia: An AI-Driven Alternative to Wikipedia
Saudi Arabia Unveils Vision for First-Ever "Sky Stadium" Suspended Over Desert Floor
Amazon Announces 14 000 Corporate Job Cuts as AI Investment Accelerates
UK Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since March, Food Leads the Decline
London Stock Exchange Group ADR (LNSTY) Earns Zacks Rank #1 Upgrade on Rising Earnings Outlook
Soap legend Tony Adams, long-time star of Crossroads, dies at 84
Rachel Reeves Signals Tax Increases Ahead of November Budget Amid £20-50 Billion Fiscal Gap
NatWest Past Gains of 314% Spotlight Opportunity — But Some Key Risks Remain
UK Launches ‘Golden Age’ of Nuclear with £38 Billion Sizewell C Approval
UK Announces £1.08 Billion Budget for Offshore Wind Auction to Boost 2030 Capacity
UK Seeks Steel Alliance with EU and US to Counter China’s Over-Capacity
UK Struggles to Balance China as Both Strategic Threat and Valued Trading Partner
Argentina’s Markets Surge as Milei’s Party Secures Major Win
British Journalist Sami Hamdi Detained by U.S. Authorities After Visa Revocation Amid Israel-Gaza Commentary
King Charles Unveils UK’s First LGBT+ Armed Forces Memorial at National Memorial Arboretum
At ninety-two and re-elected: Paul Biya secures eighth term in Cameroon amid unrest
Racist Incidents Against UK Nurses Surge by 55%
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves Cites Shared Concerns With Trump Administration as Foundation for Early US-UK Trade Deal
Essentra plc: A Closer Look at a UK ‘Penny Stock’ Opportunity Amid Market Weakness
U.S. and China Near Deal to Avert Rare-Earth Export Controls Ahead of Trump-Xi Summit
Justin time: Justin Herbert Shields Madison Beer with Impressive Reflex at Lakers Game
Russia’s President Putin Declares Burevestnik Nuclear Cruise Missile Ready for Deployment
Giuffre’s Memoir Alleges Maxwell Claimed Sexual Act with Clooney
House Republicans Move to Strip NYC Mayoral Front-Runner Zohran Mamdani of U.S. Citizenship
Record-High Spoiled Ballots Signal Voter Discontent in Ireland’s 2025 Presidential Election
Philippines’ Taal Volcano Erupts Overnight with 2.4 km Ash Plume
Albania’s Virtual AI 'Minister' Diella Set to 'Birth' Eighty-Three Digital Assistants for MPs
Tesla Unveils Vision for Optimus V3 as ‘Biggest Product of All Time’, Including Surgical Capabilities
Francis Ford Coppola Auctions Luxury Watches After Self-Financed Film Flop
Convicted Sex Offender Mistakenly Freed by UK Prison Service Arrested in London
United States and China Begin Constructive Trade Negotiations Ahead of Trump–Xi Summit
U.S. Treasury Sanctions Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro over Drug-Trafficking Allegations
Miss USA Crowns Nebraska’s Audrey Eckert Amid Leadership Overhaul
‘I Am Not Done’: Kamala Harris Signals Possible 2028 White House Run
NBA Faces Integrity Crisis After Mass Arrests in Gambling Scandal
Swift Heist at the Louvre Sees Eight French Crown Jewels Stolen in Under Seven Minutes
U.S. Halts Trade Talks with Canada After Ontario Ad Using Reagan Voice Triggers Diplomatic Fallout
Microsoft AI CEO: ‘We’re making an AI that you can trust your kids to use’ — but can Microsoft rebuild its own trust before fixing the industry’s?
China and Russia Deploy Seductive Espionage Networks to Infiltrate U.S. Tech Sector
Apple’s ‘iPhone Air’ Collapses After One Month — Another Major Misstep for the Tech Giant
Graham Potter Begins New Chapter as Sweden Head Coach on Short-Term Deal
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa Alleges Poison Plot via Chocolate and Jam
×