UK M&A deals of the month: July 2026

With five takeover battles and agreed combinations placing approximately £28.5bn of UK-linked corporate value in play, July drew some of the month’s largest cheques towards warehouses, airport slots, industrial controls, outsourced infrastructure, and television distribution.

Although the combined figure brings together transactions at different stages — including recommended acquisitions, an agreed asset sale, and possible offers that remained conditional at the end of the month — each centred on assets that would be slow or costly to reproduce. Physical infrastructure in constrained locations, specialist technology, embedded customer relationships, and established distribution networks all commanded substantial valuations.

Where June’s UK M&A review followed bidders testing the gap between prevailing share prices and boards’ assessments of long-term value, July brought several negotiations closer to resolution. SEGRO secured improved financial terms and a London listing commitment from Prologis, easyJet changed its preferred bidder after Apollo exceeded Castlelake’s proposal, and Rotork agreed to sell only after ABB raised its price through several rounds of talks.

Completed activity across the wider market remained less emphatic, with Office for National Statistics figures recording 352 domestic and cross-border acquisitions involving UK companies during the first quarter of 2026, down from 495 in the previous quarter. Inward M&A value reached £14.2bn, compared with domestic value of £1.5bn and outward value of £4.7bn.

At global level, the same concentration of capital is becoming more pronounced. PwC’s mid-year M&A analysis estimated that announced transaction value was on course to reach $4tn in 2026 even as deal volumes continued to decline, with transactions worth more than $5bn accounting for almost half of announced global value, compared with approximately one-quarter two years earlier.

Taken together, July’s leading UK transactions showed buyers committing substantial sums where ownership provided immediate access to scarce capacity, defensible technology, or established routes to customers. Even so, progression from approach to agreement depended on more than price, as shareholder expectations, financing certainty, ownership restrictions, and regulatory exposure shaped several negotiations.

SEGRO moves towards Prologis combination —

Having rejected three earlier approaches, SEGRO said on 22 July that it was minded to recommend an improved proposal from US logistics property group Prologis.

Under the revised terms, SEGRO shareholders would receive 0.0920 new Prologis shares for every SEGRO share, alongside access to a partial cash alternative of up to £3.5bn. Before permitted dividends, the proposal valued SEGRO’s issued and to-be-issued share capital at approximately £14bn, representing an increase of around 9.5% from Prologis’s initial approach.

While SEGRO had argued that the earlier proposals failed to capture the quality of its existing portfolio, development pipeline, data-centre exposure, and growth potential, Prologis responded by adding value and addressing a practical concern among investors seeking to maintain listed exposure to the sector.

To accommodate those shareholders, Prologis committed to establishing a secondary London listing of its shares by completion. Investors would therefore be able to retain an interest in the enlarged group through London, rather than choosing solely between an overseas-listed holding and a full cash exit.

Beyond conventional warehouse scale, the strategic rationale rests on a portfolio spanning urban logistics, big-box distribution, industrial facilities, and data-centre properties in supply-constrained markets across the UK and continental Europe. Prologis would gain a considerably larger European platform, while SEGRO’s development pipeline would sit within a group with greater access to capital and a broader international customer base.

Although the transaction remained a possible offer at the end of July, the companies announced a recommended combination on 4 August, shortly after the reporting period closed. The agreed terms were substantially unchanged, with completion expected during the first half of 2027, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals.

By extracting a higher valuation, retained dividends, a substantial cash alternative, and the London listing commitment, SEGRO improved both the economics and structure available to its investors. Completion would nevertheless remove an independently managed FTSE-listed owner of strategically important logistics and data-centre assets from the UK market.

Apollo disrupts easyJet’s Castlelake talks —

Entering July in discussions with Castlelake, easyJet finished the month at the centre of a competitive takeover process involving two US investment groups.

After four earlier approaches, including a £6.50 proposal rejected in June because the board believed it undervalued the airline, Castlelake secured a provisional endorsement on 5 July when easyJet said it was minded to recommend financial terms of £6.90 per share.

Within three days, however, Apollo submitted a competing proposal of £7.15 per share. By 10 July, easyJet and Apollo had agreed in principle on the key financial terms of a possible cash offer valuing the airline’s fully diluted share capital at approximately £5.7bn, prompting the board to withdraw its support for Castlelake and back Apollo’s higher proposal instead.

At £7.15 per share, Apollo’s proposal represented an 81% premium to easyJet’s closing share price immediately before the offer period began in May. Eligible shareholders would also be offered a potential equity alternative, allowing them to retain an indirect interest alongside Apollo’s funds rather than receiving the entire consideration in cash.

Because neither proposal had become a firm offer by the end of July, the bidding contest remained unresolved, although it had established a considerably higher reference point for easyJet’s value. The process also showed how a board-supported transaction can be displaced once another bidder gains access to information and presents more attractive terms.

Part of easyJet’s appeal lies in assets that cannot be assembled quickly through organic investment. Its airport slots include positions at capacity-constrained European hubs, while the airline also owns a widely recognised consumer brand, a growing holidays operation, and an established short-haul network.

Yet those advantages are accompanied by substantial capital and execution requirements, since any buyer must fund easyJet’s fleet commitments, preserve an ownership structure compatible with European airline rules, and manage an operating model exposed to fuel prices, airspace disruption, labour costs, and fluctuations in consumer demand.

Against that operational backdrop, the competing proposals require assessment beyond the difference between £6.90 and £7.15 per share. Financing resilience, ownership arrangements, and the resources available for future fleet and network investment will all affect whether the chosen transaction can support the airline’s position after completion.

ABB pays a premium for Rotork —

On 16 July, Swiss engineering group ABB agreed a recommended £4.136bn cash acquisition of British industrial automation specialist Rotork.

Under the recommended terms, shareholders would receive 503p in cash for each Rotork share and retain a permitted dividend of up to 3p. Taken together, the consideration represented a 73% premium to Rotork’s closing share price on the day before the transaction was announced and a 62.7% premium to its three-month volume-weighted average price.

Before reaching agreement, ABB had submitted an initial unsolicited proposal of 430p per share and three further approaches. Rotork’s board compared the revised cash terms with the company’s independent growth prospects before deciding that the final proposal justified a recommendation.

Serving water, energy, chemicals, mining, and other industrial and infrastructure markets, Rotork manufactures electric actuators, control systems, and instrumentation that regulate the movement of liquids and gases. Its equipment operates in environments where reliability, safety, and continuity are central purchasing considerations.

Between 2022 and 2025, the company delivered average organic revenue growth of 8%, while its adjusted operating margin reached 24.6% in 2025. At the agreed price, ABB’s offer implied an enterprise value of approximately 5.3 times annual sales and 19.5 times adjusted EBITDA.

In explaining the board’s recommendation, Dorothy Thompson, Rotork’s chair, said the offer “reflects the high quality of Rotork and recognises the significant progress delivered through the successful implementation of our Growth+ strategy”.

By retaining Rotork as a separate division within its automation business, ABB plans to strengthen its position in the field-device layer, where actuators, sensors, valves, and controls connect industrial software and automation systems with physical equipment.

Given their protected intellectual property, established installed bases, and role in critical processes, specialist engineering companies can command substantial premiums from strategic buyers. Rotork’s margins and customer relationships strengthened its negotiating position, while its technology gives ABB a route to expand across infrastructure and process industries without building an equivalent portfolio from the ground up.

At that valuation, however, integration will need to preserve the engineering expertise, product development, and customer proximity that supported Rotork’s standalone performance. ABB must combine those strengths with its global distribution and wider automation portfolio without weakening the culture and operating discipline it is paying to acquire.

OCS and Mitie pursue facilities scale —

On 21 July, OCS agreed to acquire Mitie for approximately £3.1bn, bringing together two UK-headquartered facilities services groups.

Under the recommended terms, Mitie shareholders would receive 218.5p in cash for each share while retaining a final dividend of up to 3.1p. Including that dividend, the value represented a 46.8% premium to Mitie’s previous closing price.

Using their 2025 results as a reference point, the enlarged organisation would have generated combined annual revenue of approximately £8.5bn, with contracts spanning government, defence, healthcare, national infrastructure, financial services, transport, commercial property, and technology estates.

As customer requirements have expanded beyond procurement leverage and labour deployment, facilities providers have invested more heavily in compliance, security, energy management, digital monitoring, and engineering expertise. Larger operators can spread those investments across a wider contract base while competing for complex agreements that combine several service lines.

Through its recent strategy, Mitie has expanded its capabilities across engineering, security, energy, telecoms, and project services, while OCS has grown through acquisitions including the UK operations of EMCOR and FES. Their combination would create greater capacity to pursue large contracts requiring multiple operational disciplines under a single structure.

With greater scale comes a more demanding integration programme, particularly because facilities contracts are operationally detailed, labour-intensive, and often tied to hospitals, transport networks, secure sites, data centres, and other environments where disruption can affect safety or continuity.

Combining technology platforms, reporting structures, procurement processes, management teams, and customer accounts without weakening delivery will determine whether the enlarged group converts scale into stronger margins and higher retention. Given the breadth of the combined contract portfolio, even modest execution failures could affect several customers and service lines simultaneously.

Subject to shareholder approval and regulatory conditions, including UK and European competition clearances and approval under the National Security and Investment Act, OCS and Mitie expect the transaction to complete during the first quarter of 2027.

Sky agrees deal for ITV broadcasting —

By agreeing to sell its Media and Entertainment business to Sky for up to £1.6bn, ITV set out plans on 6 July to separate its broadcasting and streaming operations from ITV Studios.

Structured around an initial £1.2bn cash payment, the consideration also includes the transfer to ITV of Sky-owned Love Productions at an agreed enterprise value of £200m and contingent cash consideration of up to £200m linked to ITV’s advertising revenue during 2027.

Following completion, ITV Studios would remain listed in London as an independent international production and distribution company. After transaction costs, separation expenses, and balance-sheet requirements, ITV expects to return approximately £950m to shareholders, excluding any contingent consideration.

Alongside the ownership transfer, a long-term content agreement would require the combined Sky and ITV broadcasting operation to spend at least £2.1bn with ITV Studios between 2028 and 2032. Love Productions, whose programmes include The Great British Bake Off, would meanwhile become part of ITV Studios.

With linear television and streaming platforms competing for audiences, advertising revenue, content, and technology investment, the proposed combination would bring Sky’s subscription and streaming operations together with ITV’s free-to-air channels and ITVX. The enlarged broadcasting group would be able to spread expenditure across a broader viewer and advertiser base.

Dana Strong, Sky’s group chief executive, described the agreement as “a defining moment for British media and an opportunity to build a stronger future”.

Because the transaction combines substantial positions in television distribution, streaming, and advertising sales, competition and public-interest scrutiny will be extensive. ITV’s Channel 3 licences would transfer to Sky, while public-service broadcasting obligations, including regional and national news commitments, would remain attached to those licences until 2034.

As well as navigating regulatory review, the companies must prepare to separate ITV Studios from the broadcasting operation while continuing to compete independently. ITV expects completion during the second half of 2027, leaving an extended period in which management teams must protect commercial performance, staff retention, and investment across both businesses.

Bottom line —

Capital gathered around a narrow group of assets during July because each offered a position that could not be reproduced quickly through ordinary investment. Logistics estates in constrained locations, airport slots, specialist industrial technology, critical service contracts, and established broadcasting reach all provide access, capacity, or customer relationships that would take years to build independently.

With Prologis, Apollo, and ABB approaching UK-listed targets from the US and Switzerland, and Sky ultimately owned by Comcast, international buyers remained prominent. OCS is headquartered in the UK, although its expansion has been supported by Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, the US private equity group that acquired it in 2022.

Although overseas ownership featured across the month, the individual transactions were underpinned by specific industrial logic. Rotork’s value rests on specialist technology, high margins, and equipment embedded in critical industrial processes; SEGRO gives Prologis immediate European scale across logistics and data-centre property; and easyJet offers airport positions and network access that cannot be recreated simply by allocating more capital.

As negotiations progressed, target boards showed that opening proposals could be improved when the standalone case remained credible and shareholders supported continued engagement. SEGRO moved from an initial proposal worth approximately £12.6bn to terms of around £14bn, together with retained dividends, a cash alternative, and a London listing commitment.

Through successive approaches, Rotork raised ABB’s price from 430p to total value of up to 506p per share, while easyJet’s negotiations produced competing proposals and a higher board-supported valuation. In each case, directors had to compare immediate cash or share consideration with the investment, operating risk, and time required to realise value independently.

Where shareholders doubt a company’s execution record or strategic plan, maintaining that leverage becomes considerably harder. A board may believe that a proposal undervalues future growth, but the argument will carry limited weight unless forecasts, capital requirements, operational milestones, and market assumptions can withstand scrutiny.

Regulatory preparation also shaped the economics and credibility of July’s transactions, as airline ownership restrictions affected easyJet’s potential buyers, media plurality and competition tests entered the Sky and ITV process, national security clearance formed part of OCS and Mitie’s timetable, and Prologis used a London listing commitment to make its proposal more acceptable to SEGRO investors.

Because these requirements can affect financing, ownership structures, stakeholder concessions, and the amount a bidder can justify paying, they increasingly need to be resolved while a transaction is being designed rather than after financial terms have been settled.

Across the month, substantial premiums were available where technology, infrastructure, and market access supported a credible strategic case, while boards extracted improved terms when they could demonstrate that those advantages were not already reflected in the share price. The resulting market remained active at the top end, but highly selective in the assets and operating positions it rewarded.

With approximately £28.5bn attached to the five leading transactions and proposals, July demonstrated the scale of capital available for well-positioned UK assets, while also showing how narrowly that capital is being deployed. The highest valuations were reserved for infrastructure, technology, and operating positions that competitors would struggle to replicate.