Will
Will Hutton picks on a problem that could be eased by pensions. We of course think that signing the Mansion House Accord , we have put matters right but the LSEG can show no evidence of Britain holding on to its crown jewels. Instead it sees our under valued companies being snapped up by largely offshore predators. The UK stock market is now at a record level, but this reflects how it has been undervalued for decades.
Hutton reminds us of this
The neglect by our pension funds of fantastic British companies with its baleful impact both on pensions and our economic vitality is an ongoing scandal. Yet more evidence today. Foreign bidders woo UK companies with ‘bear hug’ takeover offers
https://t.co/rFvz3Bshas— Will Hutton (@williamnhutton) August 2, 2026
Foreign bidders are wooing investors in London-listed companies with a growing number of “bear hug” offers designed to be too good to refuse in a tactical shift that underscores the confidence of buyers targeting UK groups.
UK companies received £44bn of such unsolicited public bids at a premium of 20 per cent or more above their share price in the second quarter, the highest value since 2018. Bidders make so-called “bear hug” bids where they hope to pressure a target’s board into acceptance.
Companies listed in the UK have been the recipients of more such offers than any other country in 2026, according to an FT analysis of data from the London Stock Exchange Group.
“It’s the year of the bear hug,”
said Kate Cooper, a corporate partner at the law firm Freshfields.
“It’s basically a way of saying to shareholders: ‘ You’re going to have to take this into your own hands.’”
The figures are frightening. No other country beats us for giving up control.
LSEG defines a bear hug as having a premium of at least 20 per cent more than the company’s closing share price the trading day before a public and unsolicited approach. There have been 12 such moves over the past 12 months — although not all successful or yet agreed. All but four were from companies headquartered outside the UK.
These offers are unsolicited and would have – only recently – have been considered unwelcome
“We used to put out unrecommended bear hug announcements 10 to 15 years ago and it was seen as a tactical disaster, and all the shareholders would rally around the board,”
said Philip Noblet, Jefferies’ co-head of UK and Ireland investment banking.
“It has very much evolved. In a de-equitizing, low-rated market, you’re going to see people get more aggressive,” he added.
Herein the problem. We are a de-equitized market because pension schemes (or personal plans) no longer have much to do with the companies listed on LSEG. We need to stop regarding an investment in our economy with scorn; we must see it as an opportunity rather than a risk.
Nothing new in selling at undervalue
Harold Macmillan (1st Earl of Stockton). The often-quoted phrase “selling off the family silver” is a paraphrase — the exact words he used, speaking to the Tory Reform Group on 8 November 1985 , were something like: “First of all the Georgian silver goes, and then all that nice furniture that used to be in the saloon.”
Other versions have him saying, in a related House of Lords speech, that selling assets off is common for individuals and states when they hit financial trouble  — continuing with the line about the Georgian silver going, then the furniture, then the Canalettos  (paintings) going too.
He was criticizing Margaret Thatcher’s privatization of state-owned industries, comparing it to a wealthy but cash-strapped family quietly selling off its heirlooms.