Bid battle

UK: Henderson Infrastructure has put in a revised takeover offer for John Laing, out-bidding German insurer Allianz, which topped Henderson’s original bid in late October. Henderson is now offering UK£ 4.05 (US$ 7.94) per share, valuing Laing at UK£ 1.00 billion (US$ 1.96 billion). Laing is an investment company focused on Private Finance Initiative (PFI) infrastructure concessions in the UK, although it also has investments in Finland, Norway, Poland and the US. At the end of last year the company’s portfolio of investments was valued at UK£ 330 million (€ 490 million) and it made an operating profit of UK£ 35.8 million (€ 53.2 million).