Royal Mail takeover and Carlsberg’s swoop on Britvic in year of mega deals
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From mobile phone mega mergers to foreign takeovers of historic British institutions, 2024 has seen a raft of mammoth deals in the corporate sector. As the value of UK stocks have tumbled, UK equities have been firmly in the crosshair of foreign suitors and private equity buyout specialists.
In the third quarter of 2024 alone, foreign firms spent £7.8 billion buying up UK businesses, up 16% on the previous three months, according to the most recent official figures. The year saw Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky swoop in with an audacious bid to buy Royal Mail owner International Distribution Services in what is set to see the more than 500-year-old postal service fall into foreign ownership for the first time.
And 18 months after first being announced, the £15 billion merger between Vodafone and Three UK was eventually given the green light by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in December, paving the way for a tie up of two of the sector’s biggest players.
Investment bank Peel Hunt said one in 20 of all UK-listed companies were put under offer publicly in 2024, but said 2025 would see a “major and sustained” deluge of swoops on UK stocks. It predicts that up to a third of small and mid-cap firms listed on London’s junior Aim market are “vulnerable to acquisition” in 2025, thanks in part to depressed valuations.
Here we look at some of the 2024’s most memorable UK takeovers and tie-ups:. – Royal Mail – £3.6 billion, May. Daniel Kretinsky’s £3.57 billion takeover bid for Royal Mail owner International Distribution Services (IDS) was arguably the year’s most controversial deal announcement.
