Sweetener and ingredients firm Tate & Lyle has revealed talks over a possible £2.7 billion takeover by US rival Ingredion Incorporated in the latest swoop on a UK company.
London-listed Tate & Lyle said it had received an approach from Illinois-based Ingredion worth 615p per share in cash, which follows a number of earlier proposals.
Tate and Ingredion are now in discussions, but Tate stressed there was no certainty an offer will be made.
Ingredion has until 5pm on June 11 to make a firm offer or walk away under Takeover Panel rules.
It comes amid a spate of approaches for British firms by overseas suitors, with laboratory testing company Intertek earlier this week giving its backing to a £9.4 billion proposal from Swedish firm EQT.
Shares in Tate & Lyle soared by over 50% in afternoon trading on Thursday.
But the takeover tilt comes after shares have come under pressure over the past year, with Tate warning over full-year profits last October and revealing a 10% drop in first half profits in November.
Tate & Lyle last year bought food and drink ingredients business CP Kelco in a deal worth around £1.4 billion.
The group is listed on the FTSE 250 Index and was first founded more than 165 years ago.
While the brand is known for sugar products, Tate sold its sugar division – including the Golden Syrup factory in London – to American Sugar Refining for £211 million in 2010.
The deal allowed the US firm to continue using the brand on its sugar products.
It left Tate & Lyle focused on sweeteners and its industrial food ingredients division.
The firm’s US suitor, Ingredion, employs more than 12,000 people worldwide.
It makes sweeteners, starches, nutritional ingredients and biomaterials that are used in food and drinks, as well as paper and pharmaceuticals.
The firm traces its roots back more than 100 years and has grown by a series of acquisitions in the US and overseas.
