Consortium eyes £1.45bn deal for John Laing fund

SHARES in John Laing Infrastructure Fund (JLIF) shot up after it revealed that a consortium of fund managers had made a move for the business.

The FTSE 250 firm, which was spun out of 170-year-old construction business John Laing in 2010 and buys infrastructure assets such as motorways, hospitals and schools, said the takeover could value it at £1.45bn.

The group of investors includes Dalmore Capital, which also backs London’s “super sewer”, as well as Equitix Investment Management.

The possible offer is worth 142.5p per share in cash and includes the payment of a dividend of up to 3.57p per share to JLIF shareholders.

The price represents a 20.6pc premium to JLIF’S closing share price of 118.2p on Friday.

The offer sent shares in the company soaring 18.1pc to 139.6p yesterday.

Analysts said the move could revive interest in the infrastructure space, which has traditionally been popular with investors as an alternative asset class but has fallen out of favour.

“We believe this offer would be an excellent result for shareholders following a difficult 12-month period for the shares,” said analysts from Liberum.

“The UK infrastructure sector has been battling several headwinds, including the threat of nationalisation and windfall taxes from a Labour government, and the collapse of Carillion.”

Matthew Hose, an analyst at Jefferies, said the success of the consortium’s bid would now depend on whether any counter-bidders showed interest in the business, which is one of Europe’s largest investors in public infrastructure projects.

Dalmore has more than £4bn of funds under management and invests in low-risk infrastructure projects, while Equitix has about £3bn of assets under management. The pair previously joined forces to acquire 75pc of the M25 public-private partnership. Equitix led a consortium to back the High Speed 1 UK rail infrastructure project, while Dalmore is an investor in the Thames Tideway Tunnel project, Cadent and Anglian Water.