UK’s ‘relentless focus on growth’ is attractive to investors, says M&G chief executive

We spoke to Andrea Rossi, the CEO of investment company M&G who are one of the sponsors of the International Investment Summit. We started by asking him what he thought had changed to suddenly make Britain a better place to invest.

Andrea Rossi: Well, it’s very clear. There are three things, in my view. First, there is a sense of stability going forward, and I think that’s key. Secondly, we have a clarity of a very industrial strategy going forward. And third, I think the most important thing – there is a relentless focus on growth.

Krishnan Guru-Murthy: Just explain what you mean by stability, because surely there is a lot of uncertainty around what the government’s going to do on tax and regulation and all these things? I mean, it’s all talk so far. You don’t actually know what’s going to happen.

Andrea Rossi: But you need to see it from a relative perspective. I mean, you have to see first where we came from. And clearly, if you look – after Brexit, after Covid, after also governmental instability in the UK – we’re certainly in a much better place now.

Krishnan Guru-Murthy: So are you moving your own funds into Britain, away from other places?

Andrea Rossi: We are one of the largest investors in the UK. We have over 100 billion sterling invested here between private assets and public assets. I would say we represent 4.6 million savers, UK savers, and, of course, also several international investors. Their appetite has increased towards the UK in the last six months. So yes, we’re representing them. I would say we are increasing our exposure to the UK.

Krishnan Guru-Murthy: There’s quite a lot of talk about regulation. How important is that to people making their investment decisions?

Andrea Rossi: Regulation is important and I always say you need to have pro-business or pro-growth regulation.

Krishnan Guru-Murthy: Can you explain what that means? I mean, does extending the rights to sick pay or holiday pay – is that anti-business regulation?

Andrea Rossi: When I say pro-business, I’ll give you a very simple example. So, for example, when you think about infrastructure investments – and the UK needs infrastructure, we know that – it’s rather strange to see that it takes double the time in the UK to be able to have that infrastructure project go through than, for example, France. I mean, that’s where we need to make sure we cut down red tape, that we simplify the planning permission process. That’s the way I want to see regulation being much more pro-business.

Krishnan Guru-Murthy: But does it worry people like you that a Labour government will be more pro workers rights, than a Conservative one?

Andrea Rossi: I think it’s critical to have the most important stakeholders, who are the workers, working in a very stable environment. So if you improve their rights, that should not be an issue – that should support growth going forward. The UK is today very attractive because of the fact that it has great universities. It has the English language, it has a financial services centre in London. It has an amazing tech hub, whether it is in biotech, whether it is in clean tech or in fintech. All these elements are supportive for the growth and, clearly, you want to make sure that the government supports that and they support it with policies which are pro-business.

Krishnan Guru-Murthy: What about the problems of Brexit? Are they all gone away?

Andrea Rossi: Well, I’m not going to obviously speculate on Brexit. That was a decision that was made and it’s the past. I think what is important is we need to make sure we have a good trade relationship with the EU.

Krishnan Guru-Murthy: Some Labour politicians have speculated about trying to rejoin the single market in some way. Would that be a boost to investment?

Andrea Rossi: Being, I would say, nearer to the European market is, for us, a clear advantage. For me, it’s really making sure we have a stronger trade relationship with them. But I mean, I wouldn’t go as far as saying that we should join the single market again. These were decisions that were made in the past. Let’s move on and let’s make sure that we move on in a positive way – we have what it takes in order to do so.