Already, China has moved, through various companies here, to acquire stakes or control of a range of British-owned companies, including two airlines and a local power company.

The British-owned company expanded its operations into nearby Nigeria before the end of the 19th century.

In 2002, Richer Sounds was judged as the best British-owned company to work for by The Sunday Times.

Usually produced by mainly British-owned companies, these exports provided the firms with vastly increased profits, at the expense of badly housed and underfed African labour.

He said he had worked as a gardener for a British-owned company in Kaduna.

The British-owned company says the price helps to finance continuing research on treatments for AIDS and other diseases.

It was largely funded by a levy on British-owned companies with plantations in Malaya and Ceylon.

At the time de Havilland Canada was still a British-owned company, and there were plans to fit the evolving design with a British engine.

A spokeswoman for Asprey, a British-owned company, declined to comment on the construction, which prosecutors said was not yet complete.