Is the UK too open to overseas takeovers?

Data shows that the UK is more open to overseas takeovers than other major markets. John Stepek asks: should investors care?

London
In the 10 years to the end of 2021, about a third of the UK's major listed companies have vanished.
(Image credit: © Getty)

Just a reminder to save the date for Saturday April 30th, when Merryn and I will be interviewing Russell Napier at the new Library of Mistakes venue in Edinburgh. I’ll put a booking link in tomorrow’s Money Morning.

A topic of perennial (and heated) discussion in markets is the idea that the UK is too open to takeovers.

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John Stepek

John Stepek is a senior reporter at Bloomberg News and a former editor of MoneyWeek magazine. He graduated from Strathclyde University with a degree in psychology in 1996 and has always been fascinated by the gap between the way the market works in theory and the way it works in practice, and by how our deep-rooted instincts work against our best interests as investors.

He started out in journalism by writing articles about the specific business challenges facing family firms. In 2003, he took a job on the finance desk of Teletext, where he spent two years covering the markets and breaking financial news.

His work has been published in Families in Business, Shares magazine, Spear's Magazine, The Sunday Times, and The Spectator among others. He has also appeared as an expert commentator on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, BBC Radio Scotland, Newsnight, Daily Politics and Bloomberg. His first book, on contrarian investing, The Sceptical Investor, was released in March 2019. You can follow John on Twitter at @john_stepek.