- Evoke and Advanced Medical Solutions both receive takeover bids on Monday
- Twenty deals with a putative value of £29.3 billion are already on the table this year
- That is the biggest sum by 20 April this decade and matches 2025’s total
- Ongoing bid bonanza suggests buyers still see value in UK equities
“Announcements from Evoke and Advanced Medical Solutions that they are in takeover talks means that twenty firms on the UK stock market are already involved in bid discussions this year and 2026 is off to a fast start in terms of deal volume and value,” says AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould.
“Even though the would-be buyers are yet to set a price tag for five of the proposed transactions, the total value of bids on the table is already £29.3 billion, equivalent to the aggregate reached across all successful bids in 2025, and the largest sum at this stage for any year this decade.
Source: Company accounts. *2026 based on all live bids announced as of 20 April, most of which are yet to close
“There is no guarantee that the quintet without a firm offer price will close successfully, or indeed that all of the deals announced to date will meet with boardroom or shareholder approval. The muted gains in Evoke’s share price suggests investors remain sceptical as to whether Bally’s Intralot’s all-stock offer will be enough to prevail, and Advanced Medical Solutions is in the early stages of discussions with a private equity buyer who has until 16 May to make a firm bid under UK takeover rules.
“The other four deals where the bidder is yet to fully show their hand involve Audioboom, Gamma Communications, Capricorn Energy and Spire Healthcare. Their current combined stock market valuation is £1.9 billion, although three of that quartet have been the target of unsuccessful approaches in the past, so shareholders are unlikely to take anything for granted in their case.
“Even so, the degree of interest in listed UK companies from either trade or financial buyers, domestic or from overseas, is notable. Successful takeover deals came to a total value of £29 billion in the whole of 2025 so this year is off to a fast start, despite the wider geopolitical uncertainty and concerns over what the long-term implications of the wars in the Middle East and Eastern Europe could be for global growth, interest rates and inflation, let alone international relations between the world’s nuclear powers.
Source: Company accounts. *2026 based on all live bids announced as of 20 April, most of which are yet to close
“The level of interest suggests that would-be buyers still believe the UK stock market offers value, even as the FTSE 100 and FTSE All-Share indices trade within 3% of their all-time high.
“The average takeover premium on the deals tabled so far in 2026 is 39%. That does not quite match the 52% and 47% average uplift gratefully banked by shareholders in 2023 and 2024 respectively, but it stands up well to the averages posted in 2021, 2022 and 2025, despite substantial gains in the UK’s headline equity indices.
Source: Company accounts. *2026 based on all live bids announced as of 20 April, most of which are yet to close
“Buying a stock purely in the hope of a takeover is a bit of a mug’s game, partly because well run, well positioned and attractively valued companies can provide very strong long-term total returns without the need for an approach, and partly because bids can sometimes take a long time to appear, as shareholders in RSA will attest, as they had to wait until 2021 for the successful Tryg/Intact offer to appear after around two decades’ speculation.
“The returns banked from deals can be a helpful supplement all the same. The £29 billion in cash, or cash-and-stock, bids that is already on the table this year equates to 1% of the FTSE All-Share’s stock market capitalisation.
“Analysts’ consensus forecasts suggest that the FTSE 100’s members are primed to pay out £88 billion in ordinary and special dividends this year, and the FTSE All-Share some £98 billion in total.
“The FTSE 100’s members have also announced share buyback plans worth £30.9 billion, with another £3.4 billion declared by other UK-listed companies.
“Those figures take the total cash return to £132 billion, for a ‘cash yield’ equivalent to 4.6% of the FTSE All-Share’s stock market valuation. Takeovers may be on track to add another percentage point to that and offer a figure that compares favourably to the Bank of England base rate, the 10-year gilt yield, and the prevailing rate of inflation.”
