UK takeover targets fight back against lowball bids as McCarthy & Stone and Countrywide get higher offers and Elementis spurns suitor

UK companies today fought back against the flood of lowball takeover bids coming in for troubled British firms, with two target companies successfully demanding increased prices and a third rejecting an offer outright.

Bidders, many from overseas, have swarmed in to snap up stock market companies on the cheap, attracted by Brexit’s downward effect on sterling and UK share prices.  

The UK’s biggest estate agent, Countrywide, today flushed out an increased offer from rival Connells, taking its bid up from £112 million. 

This increased the offer from 250p a share to 325p.

McCarthy & Stone, the retirement homes builder, saw its US bidders up their £630 million offer to £647 million — from 115p a share to 120p.

Elementis, the chemicals producer, rejected a third bid from US rival Mineral Technologies. MT’s bid came in at 130p a share, far more than  its first two offers of 107p and 117p.

The dramas unfold against the backdrop of G4S’s bid battle, which last week saw GardaWorld shift from offering 190p a share to 235p, or £3.68 billion.

As markets look to 2021 with more optimism due to hopes of a vaccine, shareholders are expected to become more aggressive when management teams fold to takeover attempts.

However, not all are being opposed.  

US giant Cisco Systems today struck a £543 million agreed takeover deal for UK customer service tech group IMImobile. 

The deal was accepted by the UK firm’s biggest shareholder, Liontrust, because it offered a 48% premium to IMI’s share price on Friday.  

Unlike other bid targets, IMI shares had been performing strongly through the coronavirus crisis, making the takeover seem less opportunistic.

Fund managers Hargreave Hale and Octopus Investments have also agreed the deal in principle, as did IMI director-shareholders.