From Jaguar, Hamley's to BT: The colony strikes back as Indian biz royalty takes over Britannica
Tata started the trend at the turn of the century by buying Tetley, the first leveraged buyout by an Indian conglomerate, for $407 million, emerging as the second largest tea company in the world. In 2007, Tata scooped up Corus in the largest overseas M&A by an Indian company at $12.11 billion, just before the global financial crisis. Much of Corus’ UK operations may have shrunk today but India’s most trusted conglomerate still has deep roots in the island nation, having acquired Jaguar Land Rover, British Salt and Brunner Mond, making Tata the single largest private sector employer in the country.
Last year, the group announced a 4 billion pound greenfield giga factory for battery cells in the UK, which at the time was regarded as something of a coup by the first Indian-origin PM of Britain, Rishi Sunak. Not that this could stop his defeat in the July general election.
On Monday, Sunil Mittal further cemented his place in Old Blighty, swooping in on a quarter of the UK’s largest telecoms group, BT, formerly British Telecom, for about $4 billion. The news saw the BT stock surge 7.6% in London on Monday. Mittal already has a substantial base in the country, having set up his satellite telecommunication business One Web in collaboration with the UK government apart from ultra-luxe hospitality group run by his daughter and son-in-law.
«Since Brexit, the UK has underperformed most global indices and was a net exporter of instability to the rest of the world but now is becoming a safe haven, especially when you look
