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KKR has pipped rival private equity firm Advent International to a takeover of UK industrial company Spectris with a £4.7bn offer that is one of the biggest recent deals for a London-listed business.
Spectris agreed last month to a £4.4bn acquisition by Advent. KKR’s latest offer is a 96 per cent premium to Spectris’s share price before takeover interest in the company became public.
Private equity firms have been targeting UK-listed companies, attracted by cheap valuations. FTSE 250-listed Spectris makes high-tech instruments including for the pharmaceutical and semiconductor industries.
KKR’s offer valued Spectris’s equity at £4.1bn, and at £4.7bn including debt. The US buyout firm said in a statement it “believes that Spectris has a number of opportunities to accelerate its growth in attractive end markets which it has not been able to execute as a listed company”.
It added that it was exploring the possibility of giving Spectris employees a form of “employee ownership participation” in the deal.
KKR has been active in the UK, also seeking to buy listed NHS landlord Assura. However, Assura has in recent weeks switched its recommendation to a higher offer from rival Primary Health Properties.
