November 2025’s UK M&A rundown

UK dealmaking in 2025 has been running in a lower gear, but November’s headlines showed that strategic acquirers and investors are still willing to move when the right assets come to market — and when capital can be put to work on infrastructure-style returns rather than blue-sky growth.

Across the first half of 2025, total UK deal value fell to £57.3bn, down 12.3% year on year, with transaction volumes nearly a fifth lower than in 2024. Even so, Experian’s year-to-date data points to more than 4,700 announced deals worth £132bn, with SMEs accounting for the vast majority of transactions, and larger deals skewing overall value. Private equity activity has been subdued, with mid-market buy-outs at their lowest level since late 2020.

Macro indicators are beginning to offer some relief. The S&P Global UK Manufacturing PMI nudged back into expansion territory at 50.2 in November — a 14-month high — as domestic demand improved and the downturn in new export work softened.

Against that backdrop, November’s biggest UK-linked M&A stories clustered around three themes: the continued financialisation of infrastructure, consolidation in professional and platform services, and a bruising reminder that shareholder activism is firmly back.

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Five deals that defined the month —

HICL–TRIG: infrastructure mega-merger abandoned under pressure —

The proposed all-share merger between HICL Infrastructure Company and The Renewables Infrastructure Group (TRIG) would have combined the UK’s two largest listed infrastructure investment trusts into a £5.3bn vehicle holding core social, transport, and renewables assets. By the end of November, however, shareholder opposition — particularly from wealth managers and allocators worried about structure, pricing, and mandate drift — had built to the point where HICL’s board withdrew support.

Although the formal abandonment came on 1 December, the lobbying and public commentary through November turned the deal into a live case study in investor influence. It underlined how even ostensibly paper-only “mergers of equals” in listed markets can be derailed if investors feel their income profile or governance protections are at risk.

Permira’s £2.3bn bid for JTC: sponsors move on financial infrastructure —

In the corporate services and fund administration world, London-listed JTC agreed to a buy-out by funds advised by Permira, valuing the company’s equity at roughly £2.3bn and implying an enterprise value of around £2.7bn. The deal, to be implemented via a court-sanctioned scheme of arrangement, adds another UK-headquartered platform to a growing roster of sponsor-backed admin and trust businesses.

For sponsors, the attraction is clear: recurring revenues, sticky institutional relationships, and exposure to private capital growth. For boards, it signals that, even in a cooler deal market, quality fee-based “picks and shovels” businesses can still attract full-takeover attention at scale.

Ashurst–Perkins Coie: law firms chase the deal upturn —

Away from listed markets, one of the most strategically significant combinations was announced in the legal sector. UK-headquartered Ashurst and US firm Perkins Coie set out plans to combine into “Ashurst Perkins Coie”, a top-20 global law firm by revenue with around 3,000 lawyers, $2.7bn in turnover, and 52 offices across 23 countries.

While not a classic corporate takeover, the merger speaks directly to the deal cycle: both firms are positioning for a higher-volume, more complex cross-border M&A environment in technology, energy, infrastructure, and financial services. For clients, it foreshadows a more concentrated market for high-end transactional advice, with larger integrated platforms competing aggressively for sponsor and strategic mandates.

Centrica and ECP buy Grain LNG: energy security as an asset class —

On 28 November, Centrica and Energy Capital Partners completed the acquisition of the Grain LNG terminal from National Grid at an enterprise value of £1.5bn. After taking into account £1.1bn of new non-recourse project finance, Centrica’s 50% equity investment is about £200m. The deal folds a critical piece of UK gas import infrastructure into Centrica’s portfolio, and is explicitly framed by the company as part of a pivot towards “stable, predictable infrastructure earnings.”

The transaction sits alongside Royal London’s completion of its acquisition of UK infrastructure manager Dalmore Capital earlier in the month, adding a pensions-backed owner to a £6bn portfolio spanning Thames Tideway, UK wind farms, and other long-dated assets. Together, they show domestic capital doubling down on regulated and quasi-regulated infrastructure as a way to balance growth ambitions with income stability.

Lloyds–Curve: a contested bet on digital payments rails —

Perhaps the most politically charged UK deal story of the month came in consumer fintech. Lloyds Banking Group agreed to acquire London-based digital wallet provider Curve, in a transaction widely reported to be worth around £120–125m and expected to close in the first half of 2026, subject to approvals. The deal would give Lloyds a multi-card, multi-rail wallet platform at scale as it looks to compete more directly with Apple Pay and Google Pay.

However, this is not a straightforward transaction. Curve’s largest external shareholder, IDC Ventures, has filed a petition in the High Court seeking to block the sale and alleging serious governance failures and suppression of shareholder rights, claiming that hundreds of millions of pounds of investor value have been destroyed in the process. IDC has also publicly questioned how Lloyds can proceed in the face of such a dispute. As things stand, the Curve acquisition is a contested deal, with legal action running in parallel to the buyer’s integration and regulatory planning.

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Sentiment: fewer, bigger, more scrutinised —

November’s deal tape reinforces what banks and advisers have been saying about 2025: volumes are lower, but the transactions that do get announced are larger, more strategic, and subject to more intense scrutiny from shareholders, regulators, and other stakeholders.

Infrastructure and “financial plumbing” assets remain in favour, whether through listed trust mergers, private equity bids for fund services platforms, or balance-sheet deals in energy and pensions. At the same time, the Curve story highlights that governance, valuation history, and process can quickly spill into the courts when investors feel sidelined.

The Ashurst–Perkins combination sits slightly apart, but still reflects a similar logic: invest ahead of an anticipated rebound in cross-border deal activity, while creating enough scale and geographical reach to be on the front line when capital deployment accelerates.

For boards and executives watching the November round-up, four themes stand out:

• Infrastructure-style earnings are commanding the spotlight — Assets with long-term, contracted, or regulated cash flows — from LNG terminals to social infrastructure and renewables portfolios — continue to attract domestic and international capital, even as broader deal volumes soften.
• Process discipline is non-negotiable — Both the HICL–TRIG merger and the Lloyds–Curve deal show how quickly investor concerns over valuation, alignment, and governance can turn into organised push-back or litigation. Clear communication, credible independent advice, and early engagement with key holders are now critical.
• Platform scale matters in services — The JTC and Ashurst–Perkins transactions underline an ongoing consolidation of the platforms that sit behind capital markets: administrators, trust companies, and law firms. Smaller players should expect more competitive pressure — or consider whether they themselves are buyers, sellers, or long-term independents.
• Regulation and political risk sit in the background of every deal — Energy security, digital competition, and pension capital mobilisation all feature prominently across November’s transactions. Buyers will need to factor in not just today’s regulatory environment, but where policy is heading over the next Parliament.

For UK business leaders, November did not herald a return to the frenetic dealmaking of 2021–22. It did, however, offer a clear signal: high-quality assets, credible theses, and well-managed processes can still find buyers — but the days of lightly-examined strategic M&A are over, and contested deals like Curve’s may become a more familiar feature of the landscape.