Whether in China or the United States, Pascal Soriot knows how to capture headlines. In Washington last year, the chief executive revealed that Britain’s biggest company AstraZeneca would be putting down $50billion (£36.2billion) of investment in the US. In China, its second-largest market, the proposed investment is $15billion (£10.9billion), of which $2.5billion (£1.8billion)already has been deployed. Much of the Astra investment in China will be on manufacturing, supplying the domestic Chinese market. Amid the myriad of numbers there was one which chief executive Charlie Nunn declined to provide: the income his bank receives on reserves placed with the Bank of England.