Daniel Black
A controlling stake in the UK’s largest port operator is potentially for sale in a deal worth £10bn, according to Bloomberg.
Associated British Ports is attracting interest from KKR, Global Infrastructure Partners, and Brookfield Asset Management, among others. AB Ports has 21 facilities in the UK and handles about 25% of the country’s seaborne trade.
And in other news:
- Blackstone and Tinicum agreed a £1.4bn deal for aerospace supplier Senior
- Sixth Street bought a stake in Sunderland AFC Women
- JPMorgan topped the dealmaker fee table in Q1
Thanks for reading, and connect with me on LinkedIn if you want to discuss how Ideals VDR can help with your next M&A deal.
Deal Tracker
Our weekly roundup of all the confirmed M&A deals in the UK.
The rumour mill
- Why McCormick’s $65 Billion Deal Might Actually Work Out
- Blackstone and Tinicum agree £1.4bn deal for UK aerospace supplier Senior
- UK’s Capricorn Energy says unit of Saudi’s Cafani must make offer by May 6
- Top UK Port Operator’s £10 Billion Sale Draws KKR, GIP, DP World
- Rezolve AI to Make Hostile Bid for Commerce.com as Talks Fail
- Ex-Rio Tinto Boss to List Seabed Mining Firm in $1 Billion Deal
- Sixth Street Buys First UK Team With Sunderland AFC Women Stake
- KKR in talks to sell BMC Helix to Montagu for $900M
Industry news
- Thomas Peterffy Says There Should Be No Bans on Insider Trading
- UK considers testing AI models used by banks
- UK businesses to increase use of dynamic prices, BoE survey finds
- Bank of England divided on how to tackle energy-induced inflation
- Evercore leapfrogs larger rivals in UK dealmaking fee league table
- KPMG cleared in Entain audit probe
- Algebris eyes UK growth: ‘We can do a lot more’
Salaries and bonuses
Job moves
- Barclays Hires Goldman’s Fall for US Leveraged Finance Role
- NatWest hires Jefferies’ Rodolakis to head up financial sponsors
Market trends
The mid-market health check
Baker Tilly’s global healthcare M&A report shows deal value up 38% to $546.7bn in 2025, yet volume fell 5%, a divergence that captures the market precisely: fewer deals, larger tickets. The mid-market followed the same pattern, with value growing 2% to $105bn while volume contracted 3%, underperforming a broader mid-market that managed 4% volume growth across all sectors.
The value-volume gap points to tightening asset supply and rising average deal sizes, particularly in digital health and specialty pharma. Structural tailwinds remain intact for 2026, with large portfolio carve-outs sustaining a pipeline of mid-sized targets, but a broad volume recovery looks more likely in the back half of the year than the first.
Dealmakers mean business in 2026
KPMG’s latest dealmaker survey puts 96% of respondents in the market for at least one transaction this year, with a mean of 5.75 deals per organisation. The volume data points to committed pipelines rather than cautious toe-dipping.
The dominant cohort, 36%, is targeting three to four deals, a cadence that speaks to programmatic discipline over opportunism, while 23% are planning five or more, suggesting a meaningful segment of the market is treating 2026 as an acceleration, not merely a recovery.
A quiet March, with caveats
March was a quiet month for UK public M&A by any recent measure, according to Herbert Smith Freehills. Three firm offers were announced, down from seven in March 2025 and the lowest March figure in at least four years. Possible offers held up somewhat better, remaining broadly in line with 2022 to 2024 levels, though well short of last year’s 11.
The headline deals included Zurich Insurance Group’s recommended £8.1bn cash offer for Beazley and a hostile £221m bid for CAB Payments, which also attracted a separate possible offer from StoneX at £241.4m.
