UK tops list for foreign direct investment

　　The UK received more inward investment than any other country last year as global foreign direct investment reached a four-year high, buoyed by a wave of mergers and acquisitions in the 30 economically advanced nations of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

　　But the Paris-based body warned for the first time that investment and growth were threatened by knee-jerk reactions against takeovers, based on national security concerns and a sense that not all countries and their companies played by the same rules.

　　Examples included the frustrated bid by CNOOC, the Chinese oil company for US-based Unocal and the resistance met by Gazprom, the Russian energy giant, in its attempts to secure a bigger foothold in gas distribution in Europe.

　　In the European Union, governments and regulators in some cases have expressed hostility to take-overs even by countries domiciled in other EU countries, the report said. In the area of public utilities, it cited the Spanish government's efforts to block the German group Eon's bid for Endesa and the Suez-Gaz de France merger, promoted by the French government to thwart a possible bid for Suez from Italy's Enel.

　　The UK was the target of many of the world's largest takeovers last year which helped propel it to the top of the recipients' league table. These included the￡7bn （$12.7bn） acquisition of Allied Domecq, the drinks group, by France''''s Pernod Ricard. The merger between Shell Transport and Trading and Royal Dutch Petroleum into Royal Dutch Shell, with headquarters in the Netherlands, also made a substantial contribution.

　　The US was the second largest recipient with $110bn, though this was an 18 per cent fall from 2004. US outwards direct investment fell from its usually high level to virtually zero? probably a temporary effect of tax changes to US multinationals' qualifying dividends from abroad.

　　Outside the OECD, China hit a record as a destination for FDI, with inflows of $72bn, surpassed only by the UK and US.

　　参考译文：

　　英国吸引外资全球居首

　　在经济合作与发展组织（OECD）30个经济发达国家并购潮推动下，全球外国直接投资创下4年新高，而去年流入英国的投资比其它任何国家都多。

　　但总部位于巴黎的经合组织首次警告说，出于对国家安全的担忧，加上人们认为并非所有国家及其企业遵循同样的规则，投资和增长受到反对收购的“膝跳”反应威胁。

　　此方面的例子包括：中国石油企业中海油（CNOOC）竞购美国优尼科（Unocal）受挫，俄罗斯能源巨头俄罗斯天然气工业股份公司（Gazprom）试图增加欧洲天然气分销份额的努力也遇到阻力。

　　报告表示，在某些情况下，欧盟各国政府和监管部门“对注册地甚至在欧盟其它国家的企业进行收购均有敌意”。在公用事业领域，报告引用的例子包括，西班牙政府试图阻止德国集团Eon竞购Endesa，以及法国苏伊士（Suez-Gaz de France）合并的做法；法国政府推动了苏伊士的合并交易，以阻止意大利国家电力公司（Enel）对苏伊士可能出现的竞购。

　　英国是去年许多全球最大并购案的目标，并购帮助把英国的排名推到

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