4 days ago
Leading businessmen Simon Peckham urges politicians to back UK firms
Politicians have been urged by one of Britain's leading businessmen to get behind wealth creators.
As concern grows that the Government is hammering the private sector, Simon Peckham, who has made a fortune buying up and turning around industrial firms, said ministers 'should support' business.
'It would be nice if politicians understood that what [business] people are trying to do is generate wealth,' he said.
'If you don't generate wealth you don't generate tax income, and if you don't generate tax income you won't have any money to spend on causes they want to support, and which civilised countries probably should support.'
Peckham is best known as the former boss of Melrose, the FTSE 100 firm which thrived by snapping up businesses under its 'buy, improve, sell' mantra.
Most controversially, it took over and broke up the historic British industrial conglomerate GKN, earning opprobrium from unions and politicians.
Peckham, 62, has since moved on to new venture Rosebank, which operates under the same principle and yesterday announced its first deal, the purchase of 72-year-old US firm Electrical Components International (ECI), a leading global supplier of electrical systems.
Rosebank said it was raising £1.1bn to fund the deal, which it said values ECI at less than £1.5billion. The company said takeover opportunities had been 'enhanced by the turbulence of recent months' as Donald Trump's tariffs throw global trading into turmoil.
Rosebank's acquisition of a US firm with more than £900m in annual revnenues represents a rare win for a UK-listed firm at a time when London's stock market is being degraded by foreign takeovers as well as the departure of many of its leading companies for New York.
UK firms are being hammered by Labour's determination to saddle them with higher taxes and a raft of new workers' rights. Chancellor Rachel Reeves this week failed to rule out raising taxes further.
Peckham said Rosebank would '100 per cent' remain on the UK market, adding 'we are proud to be so'.
But he urged UK politicians to do more to back business.
