FTSE 100-listed insurer Hiscox’s shares leap amid report of takeover bid

Shares in Hiscox surged to record highs on Friday as it became the latest UK takeover target after a flurry of overseas bids for British businesses this week.

Canada’s Intact Financial Corp, which provides property and casualty insurance, is said to be exploring a potential takeover of Lloyd’s of London insurer Hiscox, according to a report by the Insurance Post.

Acquiring the London-listed insurer would help build Intact’s commercial lines of business, the Post said, noting that Intact’s chief executive has been looking for a large takeover target and is known to be a “fan” of Hiscox.

The news sent Hiscox’s shares up as much as 15.3% on Friday to an all-time high of £18.90 a share. Hiscox did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

It makes Hiscox the latest London takeover target, amid a boom in foreign interest in UK-listed companies linked in part to cheaper valuations.

On Thursday, the ingredients business Tate & Lyle confirmed it had received a £2.7bn takeover offer from its US rival Ingredion, sending the FTSE 250 company’s shares up by 45%.

If accepted, it would mark a big geographic shift for the company, which traces its roots to a sugar refiner on Liverpool docks in 1859. However, the company already sold off its sugar arm– now known as Tate & Lyle Sugars – to American Sugar Refining for £211m in 2010, while the rest of the business stayed listed on the London stock market.

The FTSE 100 laboratory testing company Intertek said on Wednesday that it was “minded to recommend” a £10.6bn takeover offer from the Swedish private equity group EQT. Intertek had rebuffed three of EQT’s previous offers, and last month kicked off a review of its business saying at the time that it remained “highly confident in Intertek’s standalone strategy and the value-creation opportunity outlined in the strategic review”.

However, after evaluating the offer and speaking to investors, bosses said this week that it would be minded to recommend the deal, which would then be voted on by shareholders.

Intertek, which tests and certifies products before they go to market, traces its roots back to the 19th century when three pioneering businesses in the UK, Canada and the US combined. In 1885, it began testing and certifying grain cargoes before they were put to sea.

But the company, led by chief executive André Lacroix, has come under mounting pressure to sell up by some investors including Matt Peltz, the son of the billionaire activist investor Nelson Peltz. Matt Peltz has called on Intertek to accept the latest offer.