THE INDEPENDENT: American companies are preparing to launch daring takeover bids for a host of Britain's biggest corporate names – including BAE Systems and AstraZeneca – thanks to the weakness of the pound against the dollar.
Sterling has lost about a quarter of its value against the dollar in the last two-and-a-half years, and combined with the feeble recovery in the UK economy, British firms have become much cheaper for American suitors looking for a good deal.
Following the controversial takeover of Cadbury earlier this year by the US food giant Kraft, and the buyout of Gatwick Airport by an American private equity firm, analysts at Standard & Poor's predicted last week that a number of well-known UK companies, including AstraZeneca, BAE Systems and the contractor Balfour Beatty, could soon fall into American hands. >>> Alistair Dawber | Saturday, July 03, 2010
*It's better that they fall into the hands of Americans than into the hands of the oil-rich sheikhs of the Middle East! – © Mark
