For a long while the complaint was all about these swaggering foreigners coming over here, stealing all our big companies.
Morrisons – our Morrisons – fell to US private equity. Sky fell to Comcast. There were loads of others, Americans, Qataris and Scandinavians, grabbing our corporate heroes on the cheap.
Lately, the complaint is that there isn’t enough of this action, even though London shares are, bankers in the capital say, plainly undervalued.
That might soon change, as our reporting today on top buyout targets shows. Deal-making has been moribund lately, for sure, but not just here.
Uncertainty about interest rates and inflation have subdued activity across Europe. That could all be about to flip.
Floats are thin on the ground but which European stock exchange raised the most money for existing clients this year? London, by miles.
One point is that lots of our companies are doing much better than their share prices would suggest. Which in turn means the economy — which routinely defies official predictions of impending recession — is also at least holding its own.
When London Stock Exchange Group chief David Schwimmer complains that stories talking down the City are just “clickbait”, he has a point, but he shouldn’t worry. These things turn.
As for the free marketers demanding government intervention to save the free market, they’re always an unintentionally amusing sideshow.
If our analysis is right, this is a pro-UK story. The big money from the US and elsewhere wants more of Britain, not less.
If deals kick off in the fourth quarter, like the bankers say in private that they will, all this stuff about a crisis on the London stock market can go away.
Maybe then we can ease off on our favourite national pastime; talking ourselves down.
