FTSE 250 fund sold to two rivals in £1.5bn deal

A TOP infrastructure fund has struck a sweetened deal to sell itself to two rivals for £1.5bn.

FTSE 250 firm John Laing Infrastructure Fund (JLIF) last night backed an offer from Jura Acquisition, a joint vehicle of Dalmore Capital and Equitix Investment Management.

Their offer values JLIF shares at 142.5p each but – following murmurs of an investor revolt over the price – also includes a dividend of 3.57p per share. It takes the total offer per share to 146.07p. David MacLellan, chairman of JLIF, said: ‘The board has concluded the offer is in the best interests of shareholders and the company as a whole.’ In documents published last night, the parties said JLIF’s assets were a good match for the long-term investors Dalmore and Equitix represented. However, they said they would seek to sell some of JLIF non-UK assets as these did not fit with Dalmore’s investment rules.

The formal offer comes after Baillie Gifford, JLIF’s secondlargest shareholder, was said to be among investors which had expressed concern about the 142.5p per share bid.

JLIF is an investor in £1.2bn of private and public finance schemes. Floated almost eight years ago, it was spun out of John Laing Group, the separately quoted private finance initiative developer.