Rightmove's recent decision to walk away from several takeover offers from Murdoch-backed Australian property giant REA Group was “really good news” for the UK’s M&A landscape, according to veteran fund manager Iain McCombie.
For McCombie, head of Baillie Gifford's UK Equity team and manager of the UK Equity Core strategy, selling a long-standing member of the FTSE 100 with significant growth potential for "a 20% uplift" is a decision that "makes no sense". Speaking at a media roundtable attended by Investment Week, McCombie urged UK businesses to remain listed domestically, despite the increase in buyouts from private equity firms and consortiums. "Kudos to the Rightmove board", he added, "they took the long-term view". Deep Dive: Resurgence of public company takeovers is a 'double-edged sword' for ...
To continue reading this article...
Join Investment Week for free
- Unlimited access to real-time news, analysis and opinion from the investment industry, including the Sustainable Hub covering fund news from the ESG space
- Get ahead of regulatory and technological changes affecting fund management
- Important and breaking news stories selected by the editors delivered straight to your inbox each day
- Weekly members-only newsletter with exclusive opinion pieces from leading industry experts
- Be the first to hear about our extensive events schedule and awards programmes