Chinese investments in UK show strong growth

Chinese holdings in the UK have seen revenues soar in the past two years, deflecting concerns that the “golden era” of China investing in Britain may be drawing to a close, the Financial Times reports. Despite a slowdown in outward investment from China to the UK, figures show that Chinese-owned companies in Britain have enjoyed triple-digit growth, according to research by Grant Thornton, a UK-based professional services firm. The best-performing 30 companies, which had a combined turnover of £9.8bn and employ about 20,000 people in the UK, expanded revenues by an average 174% in 2015 against the previous year, according to the Grant Thornton data. Among these, privately-owned Chinese companies outperformed their state-owned counterparts, reporting a 210% increase in revenues against 146%. The study marks the first time that revenues for a representative sample of Chinese-owned companies in the UK have been published.