Globalisation can make for strange bedfellows, and even stranger comparisons. For example, what do British ad company Aegis and Kazakh miner ENRC have in common? Quite a lot is the answer. Both are listed on the London stock exchange. Both also suffer rivals parked on their registers: corporate raider Vincent Bolloré, the largest single shareholder and chairman of French media company Havas, owns almost 29 per cent of Aegis, while Kazakhmys, another Kazakh miner, has 25 per cent in ENRC.

Such stake building usually preludes a merger. But not in these cases. Aegis continues to rebuff Bolloré’s advances from Havas, denying him seats on the board. Ditto at ENRC, where a merger was once talked about (and even offered by ENRC) but is off for now. Kazakhmys turned down ENRC’s bid, and the powers-that-be in Astana have quashed the idea of a single national champion, preferring to have two to play off against each other – as with Gazprom and Rosneft across the border in Russia.