Welcome to our Public M&A trends publication for the year 2024.
With 2024 being the year of elections around the world, and valuation gaps remaining a challenge, you could be forgiven for thinking that potential buyers might hold fire on bids for UK public assets. Instead, owing in part to a rush of firm offers announced towards the end of Q4 2024, the total number of public bids announced in 2024 for Main Market or AIM-listed companies was 56, only one short of the total in 2023.
In addition, approaches for UK-listed companies continued to be on the rise, with one in 20 listed companies receiving an offer in 2024: the highest level in recent years. There was a significant increase in aggregate deal value in 2024, which saw the return of larger transactions and the highest average deal value since COVID-19, and following a busy end to 2024 we see no reason why this trend should end, with continued interest from both strategic and PE bidders.
Travers Smith acted on a number of UK public bids made in 2024, and 2025 is already shaping up to be an active year for the corporate team. We are currently acting for the bid vehicle on the offer for Alliance Pharma plc and the possible offer for Ground Rents Income Fund plc, and Assura plc on its possible offer by KKR, and we have several other takeovers in the pipeline. We therefore continue to benefit from direct insight and market knowledge of UK public deals.
Thank you for reading. We would be delighted to work with you on future transactions so please get in touch with us if you have any queries about this publication or would like to discuss a potential public takeover.
Selected 2024 experience
Lok’n Store Group plc on its takeover by Shurgard Self Storage Ltd
NYSE-listed Quanex Building Products Corporation on its takeover of Tyman plc
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In this publication
UK public M&A figures in this publication are derived from announcements and offer documentation made publicly available and stored on Thomson Reuters’ Practical Law: What’s Market.