Large listed companies in Britain were taken private more cheaply last year as bidders became more cautious towards the London equity markets.

Ten takeover deals worth between £1 billion and £5 billion across the London stock market in 2025 were launched at an average 30 per cent premium to their share prices in the week before bids were announced, according to data from Dealogic, down from an average of 38 per cent in 2024.

The fall suggested buyers were “finding it harder to identify attractively priced targets”, Will Cain, Mergermarket’s head of analytics for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said. “UK stock markets are close to record highs and bidders are being disciplined on price,” he said.

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Among the largest deals in the UK market last year were the £4.8 billion buyout of Spectris, the precision instruments maker, by KKR, the American private equity firm, and the £2.8 billion takeover of Deliveroo by DoorDash, an American food delivery rival.

The FTSE 250, which is seen as a barometer of the UK’s economic health, ended the year with a rise of 8.9 per cent to 22,470, compared with a 6 per cent rise in 2024. It remains below the 2021 record of 24,251.

In contrast, UK small cap companies were taken private at higher valuations than in 2024, with bids worth between £100 million and £500 million pitched at a price premium of 31 per cent in 2025, as against 22 per cent in 2024.

Bidders are still willing to “pay up for high quality UK assets”, Cain said, with Spectris and Alphawave, the high-speed connectivity tech group, receiving takeover premiums of 105 per cent and 96 per cent respectively.

“While deals like these are among this year’s most high-profile, they have proved to be the exception rather than the rule,” he said.

There was a fall in the dealmaking at the higher-end of the London equity market, with 10 takeovers valued at between £1 billion and £5 billion, worth an aggregate £22.3 billion, down from 13 worth £35.2 billion the year before.

In America megadeals such as Union Pacific’s £65.8 billion merger agreement with Norfolk Southern, the railway freight operator, pushed the value of takeovers worth more than £5 billion, to a combined £553 billion, up from £316 billion a year earlier.

“The UK has relatively few listed companies geared into [the] key M&A themes around technology and artificial intelligence which has driven activity in the US,” Cain said.

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“There may also have been diversion of M&A activity towards the US as corporates look to push through large cap deals in the hope they will face less scrutiny from competition authorities there.”

The wave of takeovers has deepened concerns about the health of the London market and its place as a global financial centre, as the exchange has also suffered a dearth of new listings.