A US private equity firm has made a £4.4bn offer for Spectris plc.
The London firm has recommended the deal to its shareholders after rebuffing several earlier offers from Advent International.
The offer is for £37.63 per Spectris share – £37.35 in cash plus a proposed interim dividend of 28p per share.
Spectris, which employs 7,600 people, has two divisions – Spectris Scientific and Spectris Dynamics – with annual sales of £776.7m and £501.7m respectively.
Spectris Scientific, behind advanced measurement techniques for materials analysis, serves the pharmaceutical, semiconductor, primary and advanced materials and advanced research sectors. It is comprised of three companies: Malvern Panalytical, Particle Measuring Systems and Servomex.
Spectris Dynamics, a provider of advanced virtual and physical testing, and high precision sensing solutions, supports the world’s leading automotive, machine manufacturing, aerospace, electronics and advanced research customers through its business HBK.
The news follows potential buyouts of UK firms Alphawave and Oxford Ionics.