Title: How Britain has sold more than half its companies to foreigners | This is Money
Headings: 
ALEX BRUMMER: How Britain has sold more than half its companies to foreigners
Content: Soon, foreign banks flooded into the City, gobbling up venerable British minnows such as SG Warburg, Robert Fleming and Schroders. Then came Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, who were so keen to keep in with big business that they refused to block any deals — even when the Russians eyed up British Gas. Indeed, anyone — like me — who dared question the great British sell-off was instantly labelled a xenophobe, out of touch with the reality of the modern globalised economy. What tipped the balance towards foreign takeovers in the late Nineties and 2000s were three key factors: the cheap cost of borrowing; liberal takeover rules; and the presence of global investment banks in the City, with ready access to the world’s capital. Throughout the boom years, these banks were allowed to write their own rules. What this meant, in essence, was that a bank which might once have considered it risky to lend ten times its share capital would now lend up to four times that amount. The result?