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The country still attracts more venture capital than any otherin Europe. London is an asset in this regard. If your ambition is to build a globally relevant technology company, it helps to start it in a global city. Berlin is cool and cheap, but lacks a world-class university. Paris is pretty, but French labour laws are a pain. London can be an easier place for the footloose entrepreneurto settle—though a lotrests on how post-Brexit visa schemes work.
英國仍比歐洲其他國家更能吸引風險資本。在這方面倫敦就是一筆財富。如果你的目標是建立一家全球相關的科技公司，那么在一個全球化的城市創辦這家公司會有所幫助。柏林很酷，成本也低，但沒有世界一流的大學。巴黎很漂亮，但法國的勞動法讓人頭疼。對于自由的企業家來說，倫敦可能是一個更容易定居的地方——盡管關于英國退歐后簽證計劃的運作方式有很多規定。
Where Britain has fallen down is in turning fledgling companies into listed world-beaters. Promising startups reach a certain stage of maturity only to hit a brick wall in terms of funding. They are still too small to be listed, so need private funds to grow. But by and large the bigger cheques are written by American venture-capital firms. Once the board is packed with Americans, it is natural for them to seek an American exit from their investment—either a sale to a bigger company or a listing on the Nasdaq. Many British entrepreneurs are resigned to selling to a foreign buyer.
英國的失敗在于將羽翼未豐的公司轉變為世界一流的上市公司。有前途的初創公司達到了一定的成熟階段，卻在融資方面碰壁。它們的規模仍然太小，無法上市，因此需要私人基金來成長。但總的來說，大額支票是由美國風險投資公司開出的。一旦董事會擠滿了美國人，他們自然會尋求美國人退出他們的投資——要么出售給更大的公司，要么在納斯達克上市。許多英國企業家只好把房子賣給外國買家。
A recent government-backed review, led by Ron Kalifa, a fintech entrepreneur, proposes a series of reforms to encourage British listings. They include changing London's listing rules to allow for dual classes of shares and smaller free-floats of stock—terms that are offered by New York and Hong Kong. There is also a proposal for a specialist growth-capital fund for pre-IPO businesses, backed by British asset managers. The goal is to turn a vicious cycle into a virtuous one, says Ms Glover. The more tech firms list in Britain, the more local analysts and asset managers will take an interest in them, encouraging further listings.
最近，由金融科技企業家羅恩·卡利法領導的一項政府支持的審查提出了一系列改革措施，以鼓勵英國企業上市。其中包括改變倫敦的上市規則，允許實行雙重股權結構，以及紐約和香港提供的規模較小的自由上市條款。還有一項提議是，在英國資產管理公司的支持下，為上市前的企業設立專門的增長資本基金。格洛弗表示，這樣做的目的是將惡性循環轉變為良性循環。在英國上市的科技公司越多，本土分析師和資產管理公司就會越對它們感興趣，從而鼓勵更多公司上市。
When Britain says it is "open for business", it is taken to mean that its most promising firms are available to be gobbled up by foreign bidders. If there were local alternatives to such deals, its public markets might begin to look more attractive. Decline might even be reversed. In any event, though, the gloom has gone far enough. The case against sterling assets is oversold.
當英國說自己“對商業開放”時，意思就是它最有前途的公司可以被外國競購者吞并。如果這些交易有當地的替代方案，它的公開市場可能會開始看起來更有吸引力，衰退甚至可能逆轉。無論如何，陰霾已經夠嚴重了，反對英鎊資產的理由是超賣。
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