Takeover war lifts Sky’s shares to an 18-year high

Speculation that 21st century Fox is about to raise its bid for

Sky caused the uK broadcaster’s shares to fly.

Sky, which is at the centre of a bidding war between Rupert Murdoch’s Fox and uS media giant comcast, hit an 18-year high of 1501.5p per share, up 2.3pc, or 33p. their previous peak came just as the dotcom bubble burst in 2000.

the rise in value means the telecoms company is worth £25.8bn – more than comcast’s £22bn offer, meaning investors are banking on Sky’s suitors raising the stakes.

Rumours emerged on tuesday night that Fox might hike its original £11.7bn bid to £25bn, and comcast would have to respond to stay in the game.

But investors were on tenterhooks, as no new cards were laid on the table by the time the market closed yesterday.

Fox is waiting for the final approval of its bid by the Government – which should prove a routine hurdle now – before raising the cheque size. the Sky acquisition is seen as a first step towards an even bigger deal in which Fox has promised its entertainment assets, including Sky, to Disney for £54bn.

But comcast is also trying to crash that deal, as both media giants vie to defend themselves against streaming broadcasters such as amazon and netflix.

Sky’s climbing share price helped to push the FTSE 100 up, as the index closed 0.05pc, or 4.05 points, higher at 7692.04.

though cabinet resignations and Brexit wobbles caused shares to sink at domestically focused companies such as United Utilities (down 4pc, or 31p, to 735.4p),

Severn Trent (down 3.6pc, or 73p, to 1930p) and National Grid (down 1.8pc, or 16p, to 851.8p),

Ocado’s steep rise of 9pc, or 91.5p, to 1103p, after releasing results, helped to balance the index out.

in the FtSe 250, Softcat investors got the cream as the it company said its profits for the full year should now be ‘materially ahead’ of prior expectations.

the business, which offers services from data centres to online video conferencing, attributed its success to ‘very favourable’ market conditions.

analysts at peel Hunt said it pointed to the ‘rude health of uK it demand’, as companies look to upgrade old it systems and keep up with regulatory requirements such as data protection.

Softcat ended the day up 7pc, or 50p, at 761p. Cambian’s shares also experienced a meteoric rise, as the children’s specialist education and behavioural health group received a 220p per share cash-and-share possible offer from care home business Caretech.

Both companies said they were still in talks over the offer, which

values cambian at £ 405.2m. caretech has also raised the possibility of paying for the whole of cambian in cash, but at the lower price of 200p per share.

cambian shares rocketed by 34.3pc, or 50.8p, to 199p, while its suitor’s rose marginally by 0.3pc, or 1p, to 376p.

events group ITE seemed to surprise cynical shareholders when it announced its performance so far this year was in line with expectations. its shares rose 13.9pc, or 11p, to 90p.

Paragon Entertainment , the theme park developer whose shares have been on a downward spiral for much of this year, also had some luck as it was appointed to work on abu Dhabi’s Kidzania. its shares notched up a 7.3pc, or 0.08p, rise to close at 1.1p.

perhaps in a sign of growing consumer thriftiness, flash-sale website firm MySale bagged a 13.7pc, or 8.2p, share price rise to end the day at 68.1p.

it said its earnings would be ‘at least in line’ with the top end of market expectations of £6.6m.