When it comes to public companies being bought up by private firms, the benefits are many. Private buyers are prepared to pay more for the business, pay executives higher salaries and are subject to less scrutiny and regulation.
Mr Soames argued the country needed to be “grown up” about some of these issues if the UK wanted to retain the world’s best companies.
“If you want to have international companies here you’ve got to allow them to pay management what they think that they need to be paid and not be squeamish,” he said.
The CBI’s report welcomed some of the work done already to bolster UK stock markets.
The previous Conservative government loosened some listing requirements and Reeves has plans to consolidate some public sector pension funds into superfunds.
Several of the biggest pension and insurance firms have voluntarily signed up to invest more in UK private assets.
But there’s little evidence that has moved the needle of…
