Vince Cable attacks investor 'short-termism'

Britain will re-examine the issue of investor "short-termism" with a view to curbing the behaviour seen by some as damaging to companies in takeover battles, Business Secretary Vince Cable said yesterday.

The Takeover Panel last week published proposals to tighten rules in the wake of anger over the 11.6 billion takeover of Cadbury by US food giant Kraft.

But Cable said the panel could have gone further with its recommendations.

"The Takeover Panel didn't go for some of the more radical solutions like restricting the voting rights of short-term investors who have just come in to make a quick killing during a takeover bid," he told a Sunday newspaper. "I want to take what the Takeover Panel has done - and it is positive - and probably go rather further."

He said there was a need to look at the "whole issue of how you limit the influence of investors who just moved in over the takeover period".