Japanese firm Hitachi to move rail headquarters to Britain

Japanese electronics firm Hitachi on Thursday announced it is to move its global rail headquarters from Tokyo to London as part of plans to expand its share of the international market. The maker of the first bullet train also announced that it was appointing Briton Alistair Dormer as chief executive of its rail operations. The news was welcomed by Business Secretary Vince Cable as a "huge vote of confidence in Britain" and a "testament" to the country's industrial strategy as it attempts to diversify its economy away from financial services. Hitachi last year announced it was building a factory in Durham, northern England, employing 700 people, after winning a 1.2- billion-pound (2-billion-dollar) contract to build carriages for trains on Britain's East Coast main line. The conglomerate, which makes everything from elevators to construction machinery, is expected to bid for contracts on HS2, the 50-billion-pound high-speed rail link between London and Birmingham, which is due to open in 2026. "We see it as a major operation in the UK and we want to build in the UK for the rest of Europe," Dormer told the Financial Times. "There's no reason why we can't expand to win business in other markets and create additional manufacturing capacity and challenge the traditional big three players of Alstom, Siemens and Bombardier," he said.