Cinven pulls out of race for UK's Sanne

Private equity firm Cinven has pulled out of the£1.5bn race to buy UK British asset management services provider Sanne, paving the way for a takeover by US-based fund servicer Apex Group.

Sanne agreed to a 920p-a-share offer from Apex last week, valuing the company at about £1.51bn and trumping Cinven's sweetened, but ultimately rejected, bid of 875p a share.

UK takeover regulators had given Cinven a deadline to table a further offer or walk away from the move, with the company confirming on Friday that it will not table another bid.

The proposed takeover by Apex is the latest in a flurry of acquisitions in the UK in 2021, with a raft of mergers and acquisitions taking place across financial services, defence, healthcare and retail.

Jersey-based Sanne provides outsourcing services to nearly 2,000 clients, ranging from private debt to capital markets, and recorded a 12% increase in earnings last year.

Shareholders at Sanne will vote on the deal at a general meeting and the move is set to complete in the first half of 2022.