As reported in Insider Media today, ‘Chinese businesses are actively seeking opportunities to acquire UK companies, an Insider event in Reading has heard. Linda Penny, partner with business advisory firm Wilkins Kennedy, said that investors in the Far East were interested in UK businesses struggling to plan for succession.’

This is evidently from the recent proposals from Chinese businesses in the matchmaking platform of LinkToChina, the UK-China Business Bulletin (Issue 4).

Penny, who is a key partner of the BCC Link to China Programme, said there was “a number of UK companies” owned by people in their late 50s for whom succession planning has become an issue.

“They have been hanging on through the downturn in the UK hoping they can sell when things get a bit better,” she said. “But those thoughts recede into the background with every bit of economic bad news.

“Introducing Chinese businesses into this becomes more attractive. The fact is that the Chinese will pay good prices for good businesses. I know there has been this attitude that they’ll own everything, but they own a tiny part of the economy at the moment. They are very ambitious and are interested in the UK.”

She was speaking to Insider at a round table seminar on international trade held at the Apex Plaza in Reading this week and is soon to give a speech at a conference in Beijing introducing UK companies to Chinese investors, as a part of a strong LinkToChina group for the campaign programme in China this year.