Elon Musk’s Twitter Mess Would Never Happen in the UK
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UK's takeover regime isn’t kind to private buyers. But its protections help prevent sagas like Elon Musk bid for Twitter.
The UK takeover regime isn't kind to private equity buyers. It got even tougher after Kraft Foods Inc.'s bitter acquisition of rival confectioner Cadbury in 2010. But are its rules too restrictive? If the leveraged finance market bounces back, UK stocks should be a prime hunting ground for the private equity industry. Yet local M&A rules are often seen as a brake. Blair Jacobson, co-head of European credit at Ares Management, told a Financial Times summit last week that “everything in the UK is on sale” and weak sterling was an advantage for US dollar-denominated funds. At the same time, he cautioned that negotiating the takeover regulator's require...