Britain for sale

The world is vying for UK companies. Why aren’t the locals interested?

Union Flag pound coins
(Image credit: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

A tobacco company that tries to profit from treating lung diseases “invites unflattering comparisons with the man who, having killed his mother and father”, asks the court for mercy because he is an orphan, said Dasha Afanasieva on Reuters Breakingviews. Yet that is what the world’s largest tobacco company, Marlboro-maker Philip Morris, is seeking to do, with its £1bn bid for Vectura, a UK pharma specialising in medical inhalers. Philip Morris’s pitch – that it “wants to be a ‘wellness’ company and will quit fags one day, honest” – has infuriated medical groups, said Nils Pratley in The Guardian. Rival bidder Carlyle – a major US private equity firm that is hardly “the embodiment of saintliness” – thus finds itself in the unusual position of being able to present itself as the ethical option.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up