UK Public M&A Monthly Activity Update: May 2025

In May 2025, there were eleven Rule 2.7 announcements made across the UK public M&A market and ten further possible offers announced.

Firm Offers announced this month:

  • Recommended cash offer by Tristan Capital Partners for easyHotel Limited – £206.4 million
  • Recommended cash offer by Brillian UK Limited for Trakm8 Holdings plc – £7.76 million
  • Recommended cash and loan notes offer by Management team for Field Systems Designs Holdings plc – £3.1 million – public to private
  • Recommended cash offer by DoorDash, Inc. for Deliveroo plc – £2.9 billion
  • Recommended cash offer by TA Associates Management, L.P. for FD Technologies plc – £570 million – unlisted securities alternative – public to private
  • Recommended cash and shares offer by LondonMetric Property Plc for Urban Logistics REIT plc – £698.9 million
  • Recommended cash offer by Sureserve Compliance Holdings Limited for Kinovo plc – £56.4 million – public to private
  • Recommended cash offer by FirstCash Holdings, Inc. for H&T Group plc – £297 million
  • Recommended cash and shares offer by Greencore Group plc for Bakkavor Group plc – £1.2 billion
  • Cash and shares offer by Primary Health Properties PLC for Assura plc – £1.68 billion
  • Recommended cash offer by Kverva Finans AS, FERD AS, JNE Master Fund LP and JNE Illiquid Oppportunities Fund LP for Benchmark Holdings plc – £56.7 million – public to private

Possible Offer announced this month:

  • Possible offer by Corpay, Inc. for Alpha Group International plc – cash consideration
  • Possible offer by TA Associates Management, L.P. for FD Technologies plc – £541.59 million – cash and unlisted securities alternative (firm offer subsequently announced)
  • Possible offer by Peter Gregory, Nigel Marsh and Ashok Vithlani for Empresaria Group plc – cash and loan notes
  • Possible offer by Sureserve Compliance Holdings Limited possible for Kinovo plc – £56.4 million – cash consideration (firm offer subsequently announced)
  • Possible offer by Bain Capital Private Equity (Europe), LLP for Craneware plc
  • Two possible offers by Buckthorn Partners LLP and ONE Equity Partners IX, L.P. and Webster Industries, Inc for Renold plc – £182.59 million (Consortium) – £173.57 million (Webster) – cash consideration
  • Possible offer by Dundee Precious Metals Inc. for Adriatic Metals plc
  • Formal sale process announced by Revolution Beauty Group Plc
  • Possible offer by HGGC, LLC for Inspired plc – £129.31 million – cash consideration

Firm Offers breakdown this month:

Year to date breakdown:

May 2025 Insights:

The number of firm offers announced this month is the highest seen in May over the past five years, with the announcement of eleven firm offers. There has been a slight uptick in possible offers compared to previous years, with a further ten announced (compared to eight in 2024). Activity levels for 2025 so far continue to grow steadily to 2024, with 30 firm offers in 2025, compared to 27 in 2024 at the same stage.

As seen in previous years, the scheme of arrangement remains the acquisition structure of choice. However, there has been an increase of the use of takeover offers in recent times with six of the firm offers announced in 2025 so far being by way of contractual takeover offer. May saw three out of the eleven firm offers being takeover bids, including Primary Health Properties PLC offer for Assura plc valued at £1.68 billion and Tristan Capital Partners offer for easyHotel Limited valued at £206.4 million. It will be interesting to see if takeover bids will return to levels pre-2024.

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DISCLAIMER: Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations. Attorney Advertising.

© Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer

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