Something left to lose? Network preservation as a motive for protectionist responses to foreign takeovers

Figures & data

Figure 1 Number of debates in the House of Commons that contain the term ‘takeover’ or ‘take-over’ at least 5 times.

Source: Author's count based on Digital Hansard (http://hansard.millbanksystems .com for debates prior to 2006, and http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/hansard)

Table 1 Examples of direct government attempts to prevent foreign takeovers

Year	Bidder (nationality)	Target	Sector	Means of intervention
France
1976	American National Distillers (US)	Chateau Margaux	alcoholic drinks	Veto^1
1977	British Petroleum (UK)	Rousselot	gelatine	Arrangement of a French counterbid^2 (ATO-Chemie, a subsidiary of ELF-Aquitaine and TOTAL)
1977	(Netherlands)	Gardinier^3	fertilizers	Not reported
1980	Thorn Electrical Industries (UK)	Locatel	consumer electronics	Arrangement of a French counterbid^4 (Thomson and Compagnie Générale d’Électricité)
1982	Occidental Petroleum	Pechiney's chemical assets	oil	Arrangement of a French counterbid^5 (Elf-Aquitaine, Rhone-Poulenc and CdF Chemie)
1988	Pearson (UK)	Les Echos	media	Veto on public interest grounds^6
1988	Nestlé (Switzerland)	French subsidiaries of Rowntree Mackintosh	food	Veto on competition grounds^7
1988	de Benedetti (Italy)	Epeda	car industry supplier	Arrangement of a French counterbid^8 (Peugeot and others)
1991	Nestlé (Switzerland)	Perrier	mineral water	(intervention ineffective)^9
1999	Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi (ENI) (Italy)	Elf	oil	Arrangement of a French counterbid (Total)
1999	Any foreign bidder	Crédit Lyonnais	banking	Expression of opposition^10
1999	Any foreign bidder	Canal Plus^11	media	Not reported
1999	Any foreign bidder	Cegetel^12	telecoms	Not reported
2003	Novartis (Switzerland)	Aventis	pharmaceuticals	Arrangement of a French counterbid^13 (Sanofi-Synthélabo)
2005	PepsiCo (US)	Danone	food	Expression of opposition; new legislation^14
2006	Mittal (India)	Arcelor	steel	Expression of opposition^15 (ineffective)
2007	Enel (Italy)	Suez	public utilities	Approval of a previously opposed Franco-French merger^16 (between Suez and Gaz de France)
2007	Siemens (Germany)	Areva	nuclear energy	Promotion of a Franco-French merger^17 (with Alstom) (unsuccessful)
2009	Toshiba (Japan)	Areva	nuclear energy	Arrangement of a Franco-French acquisition (by Alstom and Schneider)^18
2009	Any ‘aggressive investment fund’	Valeo	car industry supplier	Pre-emptive increase in government's share^19
2010	Danaher (US)	Ingenico	electronics	Government veto^20
2013	Yahoo (US)	Dailymotion	e-commerce	Threat of government veto^21
Germany
1983	Thomson-Brandt (France)	Grundig	consumer electronics	Veto on competition grounds^22
1992	Pirelli (Italy)	Continental	tyres	Arrangement of a counterbid at the subnational level^23
1997	Voest Alpine (Austria)	Preussag	steel	Acquisition by subnational government^24
2003	Any foreign bidder	MTU	defense	New legislation^25
2004	Any foreign bidder	Rheinmetall	defense	Threat of government veto^26
2006	Euronext	Deutsche Börse	stock exchange	Threat of veto by subnational government^27
20012	NYSE-Euronext	Deutsche Börse	stock exchange	Veto by subnational government^28
UK
1981	Any foreign bidder	ICL	computers	Expression of opposition^29,30
1982	Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC)	Royal Bank of Scotland	banking	Government veto^31
1988	Kuwait Investment Office	British Petroleum	oil	Referral to Monopolies and Mergers Commission on public interest grounds^32
1988	Elders IXL (Australia)	Scottish & Newcastle Breweries	beer	Referral to Monopolies and Mergers Commission, officially on competition grounds^33

¹The Economist, 21 August 1976, p. 86; Spiegel, 23 August 1976.

²BusinessWeek, 3 October 1977, p. 56; Schrieber and Gareis 2007: 29.

³BusinessWeek, 3 October 3, 1977, p. 56.

⁴The Economist, 1 March 1980, p. 64.

⁵Spiegel, 16 August 1982.

⁶Sydney Morning Herald, 24 February, 1988, p. 46.

⁷BusinessWeek, 21 November 1988, p. 57.

⁸Ibid.

⁹The Economist, 1 June, 1991, p. 89; The Jerusalem Post, 6 March 1992.

¹⁰Daily Deal/The Deal, 14 July 2003.

¹¹Ibid..

¹²Ibid.

¹³The International Herald Tribune, 30 April 2004, p. 13.

¹⁴Daily Deal/The Deal, 9 January, 2006.

¹⁵The Economist, 1 July 2006.

¹⁶The Economist, 10 February 2007.

¹⁷The Guardian, 24 October 2007.

¹⁸Scottish Business Insider, 21 April 2010.

¹⁹just-auto global news, 27 February 2009.

²⁰Financial Times, 21 December 2010.

²¹Country Forecast Select, 1 August 2013.

²²Martinsen 2005: 405.

²³Baums 1993: 20.

²⁴The Independent, 18 November 1999, p. 22.

²⁵Flight International, 26 August 2003, p. 5.

²⁶Financial Times, 10 August 2004.

²⁷≤http://www.zeit.de/online/2006/26/Deutsche-Boerse-Euronext>.

²⁸http://forum.spiegel.de/f22/deutsche-boerse-und-nyse-euronext-hessen-kuendigt-nein-zur-boersenfusion-53259.html.

²⁹Financial Times, 6 May 1981, p. 7.

³⁰Campbell-Kelly (1989: 336) mentions three reasons for governmental support: ‘First, the government needed to protect its massive investment in ICL computers. Second, if ICL failed, then it would damage the entire UK information technology industry, many of whose products were ICL-related. Third, if ICL failed, then it would undermine the credibility of the newly formed Ministry of Informational Technology.’

³¹The Guardian, 4 July 2006, features p. 10.

³²The Toronto Star, 12 May 1988, p. D28.

³³The Times, 13 November 1988.

Table 2 Proportion of listed companies where largest blockholder owns more than 50 [25] (20) percent of shares

	1976	1984	1986	1990	1996	2000	2005*
UK	>10	5		6 [16]	(>40)	2 [10]	7.3*
F	55			50 [80]	(86)	50 [70]	21.5*
G			59	50 [85]	(89)	50 [70]	23.6*

*2005 data refer to the mean size of the largest blockholding in the 20 largest corporations.

Sources: 1990 data: Becht and Mayer (2001: 2); 2000 data: Van der Elst (2004); 1976–1986 data: Berglöf (1990: 126). 2005 data: Alves (2010:6).

Table 3 Percentage of shares* owned by the public sector

	1975	1981	1989	1991	1993	1995	1997	1999	‘01	‘03	‘06	‘08	‘09	‘12
UK	3.6	3.0	2.0	1.3	1.3		0.1	0.1		0.1	0.1	1.1		2.5
F						4.1	6.3	8.1	4.1	4.9	8.5	10.6	8.6
G	8.9	8.5	4.7	5.4	4.6	4.2	5.2	3.5	1.8	3.2	2.2	2.7	2.3

*percentage of market value of domestic listed shares

Sources: UK data: Office of National Statistics (2012), table A; French data: DAI Factbook (2010), table 8.7 F 5; German data: DAI Factbook (2010), table 8.1-3.

Table 4 Percentage of shares* owned by private non-financial companies

	1975	1981	1989	1991	1993	1995	1997	1999	‘01	‘03	‘06	‘08	‘09	‘12
UK	3.0	5.1	3.8	3.3	1.5		1.2	2.2	1.0	0.7	1.8	3.0		2.3
F						25.5	20.0	21.0	21.0	21.3	15.2	13.8	13.7
G	42.09	46.5	37.2	42.3	40.8	44.0	37.6	35.6	39.7	36.6	34.8	39.5	41.2

*percentage of market value of domestic listed shares

Sources: UK data: Office of National Statistics (2012), table A; French data: DAI Factbook (2010), table 8.7 F 5; German data: DAI Factbook (2010), tables 8.1-2 (West Germany, prior to 1991) and 8.1-3 (from 1991 onward).

Table 5 Percentage of top managers** with career experience in high level public administration

	1981	1983	1986	1993	1996	1998	2002	2004	2006
UK		5.3				1.7
F	[37]	12.2	[34]	16.7	[50]	16.6	[46]	[44]	[46]

** Data for 1983 and 1993 refer to the CEOs of the domestically-owned members of the 100 largest industrial firms; data for 1998 refer to the entire population of main board members holding executive role in top 100 French and UK companies. Data in brackets refer to the CEOs of the 40 largest firms.

Sources: 1983 and 1993 data: Whittington and Mayer (2000: 114); 1998 data: MacLean, Harvey and Press (2007: 542, 544); 1981–2006 data in brackets: Dudouet and Grémont (2007: 11).

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