National Security and Investment Bill (Fifth sitting)

Debate between Stephen Kinnock and Mark Garnier

Committee stage & Committee Debate: 5th sitting: House of Commons
Tuesday 1st December 2020 Public Bill Committees

[Stephen Kinnock]

There are plenty of examples of Select Committees getting involved in the upstream work of Government—for example, giving feedback on White Papers. Parliament and its Select Committees consistently get involved in the work of Government in that context.

[Mark Garnier]

rose—

National Security and Investment Bill (Fourth sitting)

Debate between Stephen Kinnock and Mark Garnier

Committee stage & Committee Debate: 4th sitting: House of Commons
Thursday 26th November 2020 Public Bill Committees

[Stephen Kinnock]

Q I am sorry; I saw that you have done a lot of work with private equity and thought that you may have been involved in that aspect of it. On sovereign wealth funds, do you see the China Investment Corporation—I do not know if you have ever done any work with it—as an arm of the Chinese Communist party?

Will Jackson-Moore: I am not in a position to talk about specific individual organisations. A number of sovereign funds in China are very well regarded in the international capital markets. However, in terms of their interaction with Chinese Government, that is not something that I have a perspective on.

[Mark Garnier]

Q My apologies for not being here at the beginning. I am interested in your work on sovereign wealth funds and private equity funds, in terms of working out the value of an investment asset. We heard evidence in the first session this afternoon—I do not know if you were here—than the fact that this Bill will restrict the number of potential buyers out there might then restrict the amount of interest coming in to start with; an investor with a target company to invest in may have limited numbers of people that they could sell it to when they want to exit, which will adjust the price. Have you had any thoughts about that at all?

Will Jackson-Moore: As I mentioned earlier, the UK is the gold standard for a location to invest in, particularly within Europe. Investors like investing in the UK because of the fairness and transparency, UK law and UK courts, and as a place to be based and to live, so there is an inherent benefit to doing UK-based transactions. However, and as we sit here right now, on a scorecard-type approach, the UK is not as attractive a location as it has been historically. We have the uncertainties of Brexit and we have a number of other territories looking to recover and rethink their economies given the situation we are all in, so there will be more—