Panmure in talks about £37m takeover of finnCap - report

Panmure Gordon is reportedly in talks about a roughly £37m takeover of rival City broker finnCap.

According to Sky News, Panmure - which is controlled by former Barclays chief Bob Diamond’s Atlas Merchant Capital - has proposed an all-cash deal worth just over 20p a share.

Sources told Sky that the two companies have been locked in discussions for several weeks.

One source said that an earlier proposal which included a separate deferred payment for Energise, a net zero and sustainability consultancy which is 50%-owned by finnCap, had been rejected by leading investors.

Sky cited insiders as saying that the prospects of a merger between the two mid-cap investment banks are still hanging in the balance.

On Tuesday, finnCap said the deadline for Panmure to either announce a firm intention to make an offer or walk away had been extended from 15 November to 13 December. FinnCap first announced in mid October that it had received indicative non-binding proposals from Panmure regarding a possible merger.