If we are not very successful at running a business, maybe it's better to let someone else have a shot at itDaniel Křetínský, whose company International Distributions Services already owns 27 per cent of Royal Mail is bidding to buy the rest
The simplest of all is the price/earnings ratio of big companies on the stock exchanges, the ratio between the value of all the shares of the company and its annual earnings or profits. In very round numbers, shares in London have been trading at around 11 times earnings, while in Paris and Frankfurt they are 12 to 13 times earnings, and in New York it’s more than 20 times.
Before you bridle at the extent to which UK business is owned by overseas entities, consider something else. Britain owns almost as many assets abroad as foreign entities own here – we were in surplus in 2016. We are not really aware of that. For example, if you stay at an InterContinental in America, a Crowne Plaza or – if you are sticking to a budget – a Holiday Inn, your host is IHG Group, headquartered in Windsor, a six-minute walk from the castle.
The best source on both the stock and flow of funds into international investments is the annual balance of payments, the “”, published every year. The most recent one came out last October, and only runs to the end of 2022, so it is inevitably rear-view mirror stuff, but it gives a helpful long-run view none the less.Most of the attention is inevitably paid to what happened to the current account, the flows in and out in the previous year.