Weekly Round-up: Mind the Gap in UK M&A, Alt GPs Back on the Menu?

Mind the Gap

The UK seems to be fertile ground for takeover bids, as US firms in particular seek to exploit a valuation gap with the FTSE – a persistent differential exacerbated by political uncertainty and widening relative to the rest of Europe.

This month, British food mainstay Tate & Lyle agreed a £2.7B sale to Ingredion and earlier this year US-based Nuveen reached a deal to acquire Schroders for close to £9.9B. Private Equity is also chomping at the bit: EQT agreed to take product-testing and certification company Intertek private for £10.9B after four rounds of bids (40% premium to the unaffected price).

We recently covered the Castlelake bid for easyJet in our piece put-up or shut-up where we highlighted a realistic bid-range well north of the mandatory minimum (403p) and prevailing share price post initial announcement of intent (440-470p). easyJet currently trades at 583p (+46.5% in the past month) which is still below the latest 625p level Castlelake publicly announced.

This week, SEGRO disclosed a letter from US REIT Prologis setting out the terms of an indicative all-share proposal.

Under the proposed terms, Prologis would acquire 100% of the equity at an exchange ratio implying a value of 925p / share (in-line with SEGRO’s reported FY2025 NAV and a 32% premium to the 3 month VWAP).

Let’s take a closer look at how to think about the scope for potential upside from here.