Finance
KKR outbids Advent in $6.5 billion battle to buy UK's Spectris
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on July 2, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
Company
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on July 2, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026
KKR wins a $6.5 billion bid for Spectris, outbidding Advent. Spectris shares rose 5.3% as it withdrew support for Advent's offer.
(Reuters) -British scientific instruments maker Spectris has agreed to a takeover offer from U.S. investment firm KKR valuing it at 4.7 billion pounds ($6.46 billion) including debt, and has withdrawn its support for a rival offer from Advent.
The battle for Spectris, Britain's largest takeover target this year, heated up after KKR last week tabled a bid valuing Spectris at 40 pounds per share including dividends, 6.3% higher than Advent's 37.63 pound per share offer, which valued the group at 4.4 billion pounds.
Spectris said its board has decided to withdraw its recommendation of Advent's offer in favour of the higher bid from KKR, which had made two prior takeover proposals for the London-listed firm. The firm had rejected KKR's second takeover bid on June 13.
Advent, which had reserved the right to increase its offer for Spectris if a competing bid was made, did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for a comment.
"The ball is now back in Advent's court, and having stalked Spectris for an extended period, there must be some chance that it keeps fighting," analysts at Stifel said.
"But having already raised its bid several times, room for manoeuvre looks fairly limited to us."
Spectris shares climbed as much as 5.3% to 40.32 pounds on Wednesday to their highest in more than three and a half years. As of Tuesday's close the stock had surged nearly 88% since Advent's initial bid was disclosed on June 9.
In its latest offer for Spectris, shareholders will receive 39.72 pounds per share in cash from KKR and an interim dividend of 28 pence.
Britain's cheap valuations and relative stability have lured overseas buyers. KKR was also involved in a bidding war for British healthcare real estate investor Assura, which agreed a deal with KKR-Stonepeak before ditching them in favour of a higher bid from Primary Health Properties last month.
($1 = 0.7281 pounds)
(Reporting by Raechel Thankam Job in Bengaluru; Editing by Eileen Soreng, Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Jan Harvey)
KKR's bid for Spectris is valued at 4.7 billion pounds, which is approximately $6.46 billion including debt.
KKR's latest offer for Spectris is 40 pounds per share, which includes an interim dividend of 28 pence.
Advent did not immediately respond to requests for comments regarding KKR's competing bid for Spectris.
Following the announcement of KKR's bid, Spectris shares climbed as much as 5.3% to 40.32 pounds, reaching their highest level in over three and a half years.
Britain's cheap valuations and relative stability have attracted overseas buyers, as seen in KKR's involvement in the bidding war for Spectris.
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