London is leaving the door wide open to private equity raiders

KKR sees more value than public investors in Spectris’s manufacturing of precision instruments and testing equipment. Photograph: Jackyenjoyphotography/Getty Images

This shouldn’t happen in a well-functioning stock market: a grownup industrial company, listed in London since 1988, with revenues of £1.3bn last year and pre-tax profits of £191m, is being taken out by private equity at a 96% premium to the pre-action share price. How can a business be worth twice as much in private hands than on the public markets?

The company is Spectris, a low-profile but high-quality FTSE 250 maker of precision instruments and testing equipment used in everything from food manufacturing to automotives. The buyer is KKR with an agreed offer of £4.1bn that beats fellow US private equity house Advent’s £3.8bn offer last week.