- 64 UK-listed stocks were subject to takeover activity in 2025
- Some bidders offered more than twice the market price to buy a company
- Trade buyers were more prolific than private equity bidders
- UK market no longer cheap as chips, which implies the pace of takeovers could slow in 2026
- Top 10 biggest bid premiums
Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell, comments:
“It was another blockbuster year for UK-listed takeovers, with 64 companies receiving a bid during 2025, according to analysis by AJ Bell. Of these, 51 deals have either completed or are still live, and 13 bid situations fell by the wayside.
“Bid activity was mostly concentrated in the mid and small cap universe, with only one FTSE 100 stock – Anglo American – subject to solid bid interest.
“The average bid premium for deals that didn’t collapse was 39%, being the difference between the offer and the price at which the shares traded on the eve of takeover interest first being revealed. That’s below the 43% average over the past five years and partially explained by the re-rating we’ve seen in UK shares in recent years. The average bid premium in previous years was 47% in 2024, 52% in 2023, 38% in 2022 and 39% in 2021.
“Put simply, the UK market is no longer in bargain basement territory and the gap between bids pitched as ‘fair value’ and the market value pre-bid is smaller than when the market was cheap as chips in 2022 and 2023. For example, the FTSE 100 traded on approximately 10 times forward earnings in 2023, but a re-rating has seen the blue-chip index rise to 12 to 13 times in the second half of 2025.
“We’ve also seen a superb year for UK stock performance, with many FTSE 100 companies delivering supersized returns. It means bidders for UK large caps might have missed their window of opportunity, and that 2026 could be another year of M&A dominated by smaller companies where there are still pockets of cheap valuations.
“Four UK-listed stocks had bid premiums greater than 100% in 2025. The highest was Trakm8 where Brillian offered 280% more than the market value for the fleet management solutions business. Trakm8 was struggling at the time, and it looks like Brillian went in with its best offer rather than the classic low-ball bid to start things off.
“Precision instrument specialist Spectris had delivered significant gains for shareholders over multiple years but went through a bad patch in 2024. That left its share price experiencing a momentary bout of weakness which led to an opportunistic takeover bid. Private equity group KKR sealed the deal by offering to pay more than double the market price.
“Spectris is one of many examples of a bidding war. Advent fought hard against KKR to buy Spectris, with both suitors raising their bids during the process.
Trade buyers were the most prolific
“Trade buyers accounted for half of all UK-listed takeover activity in 2025. This is defined as being an operating company in the same or similar field to the bid target. Trade takeovers are a way for companies to branch out into a new territory or product line, or to eliminate competition.
“For example, WSP went from prey to predator. The support services group used to be on the UK stock market until it was acquired by Canada’s Genivar in 2012. The enlarged group adopted the WSP name and bought UK-listed engineering consultant Ricardo in 2025.”
