Wood Group rejects £1.4bn Dubai takeover bid

OIL industry engineer Wood Group has as rejected a takeover bid from foreign predators dnai after becoming the latest Londonlisted company to be targeted.

It turned down a £1.4bn offer from Dubai rival Sidara because it ‘fundamentally y undervalued’ the company, Wood said.

The rejection came as it emerged Bristol ol chipmaker Graphcore is a target for Japanese ainvestment giant SoftBank.

The pair are just the latest firms to land in the cross-hairs of foreign buyers, fuelling concerns British companies are undervalued and face an onslaught of merger and acquisition activity.

Global fund network Calastone warned sentiment around the market remained negative despite the FTSE 100 hitting record highs. British investors piled into funds last month as they looked to take advantage of tax incentives on Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs).

UK savers added £1.93bn to equity funds and £422m to fixed income funds in April, according to Calastone.

But most of it went into global, North American and European funds, with £665m withdrawn from UK investments.

That took the total taken out of UK funds £21.3bn in 35 consecutive months selling.

The relentless negativity on UK-focused equity funds was undiminished,’ Calastone wrote.

That has left London-listed companies undervalued and vulnerable to buyers looking for a bargain.

Shares in Wood, which is based in Aberdeen and specialises in engineering and maintenance in the energy sector, soared 16.9pc, or 27.9p, to 192.9p after interest from Sidara became public.

Last month Wood investor Sparta Capital urged bosses to consider its UK listing and mull a sale amid the company’s dwindling share price.

Before yesterday, shares were down by over a third in the past year. Meanwhile,

Japanese conglomerate SoftBank is said to be in talks to snap up Graphcore.

Founded in 2016, Graphcore designs processing units for artificial intelligence software. It was once valued at £2.2bn and was touted as a potential rival to US behemoth Nvidia. But it posted a 46pc decline in revenues to £2.2m last year.

The UK has seen a steady flow of companies bought up so far this year.

Cyber-security group Darktrace backed a £4.25bn takeover by US private equity firm Thoma Bravo last month, Australian mining giant BHP is in talks to buy Anglo American, and Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky is eyeing Royal Mail owner International Distributions Services.

Others have also agreed to be bought, including packager DS Smith, haulier Wincanton and housebuilder Redrow.