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KKR and PHP continue to battle over Assura (stage)

19 Jun 2025 Jun 19, 2025

UK 6 min read

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Hello,

The bidding war over NHS landlord Assura took a few more twists this week. After KKR made its ‘best and final’ offer of £1.7bn, PHP hit back with a revised bid.

The FT also reported that some of Assura’s largest shareholders favoured PHP due to concerns that KKR’s bid would ‘lead to the company being taken off London’s stock exchange at a low price.’

And in other news:

NatWest has ruled out bidding for TSB
Unilever is exploring the sale of its Graze snack brand
JPMorgan thinks UK banks are set for more consolidation

Thanks for reading, and connect with me on LinkedIn if you want to discuss how I can help with your next M&A deal.

Dealmaker spotlight

This week we spoke with Charles Lamport-Beale of Prism Corporate Broking, who went from studying Philosophy to navigating P&L in corporate finance.

He explained how his background shapes his approach to M&A and why more humanities grads should be considering careers in the industry.

Read the article to find out more, and get in touch if you’d like to be profiled in our newsletter.

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Deal Tracker

Our weekly roundup of confirmed M&A deals in the UK.

Transaction	Sectors	Buyer	Buyer’s advisors	Seller’s advisors
01 Knights Group acquired law firm Birkett Long	Business Services	Knights Group	–	–
02 BP Marsh acquired 27% stake in underwriting agency Cameron Specialty	Business Services	BP Marsh	–	–
03 PZ Cussons sold its 50% stake in Nigerian edible oils firm PZ WIlmar for £52m	Energy	–	–	–
04 NewsCPPGroup dold off divisions to slim down to ‘insurtech’ arm Blink	Insurance	–	–	–
05 LemFi acquired credit scoring fintech Pillar	TMT	LemFi	–	–

Industry news

The rumour mill

Salaries and bonuses

Job moves

Market trends

Busier summer ahead?

Trump’s trade war threats continue to weigh on global M&A activity as corporate boardrooms delay major deals amid policy uncertainty, while simultaneously boosting trading revenues for Wall Street banks.

According to LSEG data, transaction counts have dropped 22% despite announced values rising 21%, with banks reporting significant pressure on advisory fees. Bank of America expects its investment banking revenue to be down 25% in the quarter from last year, while trading desks will likely benefit from increased market volatility.

Nevertheless M&A activity in 2025 has already outperformed the 2023 and 2024 digits, reaching approx $1.8 trillion YTD through June. Though still below the record $3 trillion peak achieved in 2021, recent weeks have seen a flurry of acquisitions and strongly performing IPOs.

Goldman executives are preparing for a busier summer period, however they caution this outlook depends on avoiding “more exogenous shocks, or more disruptive policy, which is maybe a big if.”

Fintech winter?

The cautious investor sentiment evident in broader M&A markets is manifesting even more dramatically in the UK’s fintech scene. Deal activity plummeted 52% in Q1 to just 58 transactions compared to 121 in the same period in 2024.

Furthermore, FinTech Global reported a 30% decline in funding, dropping to $1.4bn from $2bn in Q1 last year. Despite that, the average deal size has increased to $24.6m from $16.7m, indicating investors are backing fewer but significantly larger bets.

Projections suggest fintech deal activity will drop 28% for full year 2025, with standout transactions like nsave’s $18m Series A led by TQ Ventures and backed by Sequoia Capital highlighting how quality investments with proven business models continue to attract substantial capital commitments despite the overall market contractions.

Foreign buyers in $10 billion scramble for UK targets

As I discussed last week, foreign buyers are capitalizing on discounted UK valuations in a rapid buying spree. Bloomberg reported on the fact that nearly $10bn of deals were announced in a single day, including Advent’s £3.7bn takeover of Spectris and Qualcomm $2.4bn acquisition of Alphawave IP, both carrying premiums above 80%.

The value of foreign takeovers has climbed 10% to over $140bn in the past 12 months, representing more than two-thirds of all UK deals, as buyers exploit the valuation gap between London’s FTSE 100 trading at 13.5 times earnings versus the S&P 500’s 22.9 times.

European firms fund their own M&A ambitions

Following the surge in foreign acquisitions, European corporates are responding by securing equity financing to fund their own M&A ambitions, with their primary follow-on issuance reaching $4.5bn in June alone, marking the highest monthly value this year.

Notable transactions include Italgas’s €1bn rights issue to finance its 2i Rete Gas acquisition and Rosebank Industries’ £1.2bn raise for the $1.9bn ECI deal.

However, the window for such financing may be narrowing as geopolitical tensions between Israel and Iran create market choppiness, while Trump’s negotiations with China and concerns over rising US debt costs threaten to shut equity markets again after the July 9 tariff pause expires.