'Cadbury law' to protect UK firms 10 April 2010, 7:05pm
A '*Cadbury's Law'* to *prevent foreign takeovers* of key British firms will be in Gordon Brown's manifesto on Monday. [image: Skip additional links]<http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=502645&in_page_id=2#endpromo> Currently, a simple majority of shareholders can accept a takeover. Labour wants that threshold raised to two-thirds in firms where there is a national interest in keeping a company British. That would protect key infrastructure companies and would also include firms with strong community roots like Cadbury, which was taken over by American firm Kraft earlier this year. Ministers were emboldened to act by anger over the way Kraft first promised to keep a Cadbury's plant near Bath open and then closed it. Labour believes the move will be popular with voters concerned at the way British firms have been snapped up by foreigners only to see workers laid off. But Ministers stood by as Land Rover was sold to India, Rover to China and steel firm Corus to the Dutch and then India. Similar plans were dismissed by Business Secretary Lord Mandelson last January. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
