UK: takeovers - more from the BIS Secretary of State

The new Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills - the Rt Hon Dr Vince Cable MP - delivered a speech yesterday in which he set out in general terms the work programme for his department and his approach in this regard: see here. He touched upon takeover regulation and, against the background of the Takeover Panel's consultation paper on the Takeover Code, observed:

Too many takeovers in the UK fail even by the limited criterion of shareholder value – and often with serious implications for the people who work for the firms on both sides. For me this is not about foreign or domestic ownership – it draws no distinction between the two ...

So it is not about protectionism or strategic industries. It is certainly not about protecting bad management by blocking takeovers. It is about changing the way in which unfettered short term speculation can have damaging long term consequences. It is also about responsibility. It is renewing a sense that a company is an enterprise, not just a set of paper assets. It is about insisting that running a company and owning shares in a company should be an important responsibility, and never more so than when a company changes hands. This is an important issue for me because I think in many ways it captures something simple and important about the economy we want to build".