ONE question prompted by Kraft Heinz's failed $160bn bid for Unilever is whether Britain still wants to be the world's entrepot for buying and selling companies. For decades it has been more open to mergers and acquisitions than any other big economy. Britain accounts for 3% of global gdp and its firms make up just 5% of global market capitalisation, but the latter have been involved in a quarter of cross-border m&a activity since 1997, either as buyers or as targets, according to Dealogic, a data firm.
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