Insider Media Limited

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.

View the key thoughts from our round table event here.

Penny, who is a key part of the British Chambers of Commerce 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.

James Massey-Collier, a partner from law firm Osborne Clarke, presented a research paper to the Insider event – The Osborne Clarke South East Barometer – which found the South East of England has become a heavyweight in service exports.

"The South East is responsible for around a quarter of the UK’s service exports," he reported.

"The value of the region’s exports grew by 45 per cent between 2001 and 2009, compared to volume growth of just 26 per cent. Inflation accounts for some of this, but it also suggests that higher-value items are being exported.

"The biggest overseas markets for businesses in the South East continues to be the United States of America – and it continues to grow – and since 2007 exports from the South East to the USA have doubled and it now takes 18 per cent of the region’s exports."

According to the barometer, export values are growing faster than volume, while the five growth hotspots for South East businesses are Chile, Saudi Arabia, India, China and Africa.