• Foreign companies bought $ 87bn worth of British businesses
• British firms spent $ 39bn on acquiring overseas businesses

The sale of UK Plc has accelerated this year, with foreign companies buying British firms at more than twice the rate that domestic operations are buying overseas businesses.

Foreign companies have bought $ 86.8bn (£54.5bn) worth of British businesses so far this year, with UK operations acquiring $ 38.8bn of overseas ventures – a gap of $ 48bn, according to new figures from Thomson Reuters.

In the biggest takeover of the year, the US food group Kraft bought Cadbury for $ 21.4bn in April, in a controversial deal. Kraft quickly reneged on a pledge to keep its Somerdale factory open, with the loss of 400 jobs, while this month it emerged the company plans to shift parts of the chocolate maker to Switzerland in a move that will reduce its tax bill.

Thomson’s figures will intensify the debate about the sale of British business to overseas companies, which gained momentum last week after De La Rue, the Bank of England’s banknote printer, announced it had received an offer from Oberthur, a French rival.

De La Rue has rejected the offer, but unions are fearful that the company could eventually be sold at a higher price, marking the loss of another important British business, in the wake of BAA, the airports operator, P&O, the ports operator, steelmaker Corus and Abbey National.

Critics say Britain’s liberal takeover regime opens it up to overseas predators, many based in countries that would not allow British companies the same right of entry.

Trade union Unite is concerned that foreign takeovers often lead to production being shifted overseas, involving UK factory closures and job losses among skilled workers. They are also concerned about the security implications of strategic companies being sold abroad, such as sterling note production, in the case of De La Rue.

Len McCluskey, general secretary of Unite, said: “While there may be a business sense in some consolidations - for instance as with the recent BA and Iberia merger – we are always very wary about the underlying rationale for the fusion.”

Last year, British companies bought $ 34.5bn of overseas companies, while foreign business acquired $ 48.5bn of British operations – a negative gap of $ 14bn, according to Thomson.

Other big deals in the past two years include the $ 4.6bn takeover of Tomkins, the UK engineer, by Onex, Canada’s biggest private equity firm, in September and Thomson’s $ 4.9bn acquisition of Reuters in June last year. The sale of UK businesses is not a new trend. In 2007 some 40% of the UK’s manufacturing output was foreign-owned, up from 25% in 2000, according to figures from the Office of National Statistics.

Business: Manufacturing sector | guardian.co.uk