But corporate Germany is going to have to get used to these sorts of attacks. While talks on a pan-European takeover code continue for the 27th year, Germany is due to bring in its own takeover law soon and this is already raising eyebrows among international investors. They do not like the look of a draft clause which will allow companies to set up poison pill defences in advance of any takeover approach so long as their shareholders give the nod. Anglo-Saxon interference is a sensitive issue, though Vodafone has shown that hostile bids are not impossible. Don't forget, too, that Daimler was allowed to take over Chrysler - even if it may have lived to regret it.
International capitalism is a two-way street.
A final dividend of 17.15p per share is payable on October 3, making a total of 26.9p for the year. We could scoff at the hapless management, but that would ignore the extravagantly rewarded pool of financial to which advisers this company has access - and to which chief executive Steve Marshall would have deferred on the question of whether to maintain, cut or scrap the dividend. Step forward the pukka investment bank NH Rothschild and joint corporate brokers Merrill Lynch and Cazenove. Imagine the sort of value destruction if Railtrack had used anything other than the City's finest.