HedgeCo.Net — Veritas Capital Fund Management, through Vulcan Alpha Bidco Limited, and Bodycote plc said Tuesday they had agreed a recommended cash acquisition at an Offer Value of 940 pence a share, comprising 932.8 pence in cash plus the FY26 interim dividend of 7.2 pence that shareholders keep. The Rule 2.7 announcement on Investegate is the primary. Reuters independently printed the same 940 pence package, the same 932.8 pence cash line, and the same competing-process context with CVC.
Cash Consideration alone implies about £1,640 million of equity value on a fully diluted basis and about £1,840 million of enterprise value. Including the permitted dividend, Offer Value implies about £1,652 million equity and about £1,852 million enterprise value. Versus the three-month undisturbed VWAP of 683.4 pence ended 21 May 2026, Offer Value is a 37.5 percent premium. Versus the 750.2 pence close on 4 August 2026, the last business day before the offer period began, Offer Value is a 25.3 percent premium. Veritas reported about $54 billion of AUM as of 30 June 2026.
Apollo’s unsolicited approach opened the process on 22 May 2026 and later withdrew. Bodycote then ran separate negotiations with Veritas and CVC; CVC’s improved proposal reached 915 pence including the dividend and Veritas’s reached 914 pence before Veritas raised again to 940 pence on 31 August. The Bodycote board, advised by Barclays, Goldman Sachs, and Gleacher Shacklock as Rule 3 adviser, intends to recommend unanimously. Director irrevocables cover 252,480 shares, about 0.15 percent of issued capital. Bodycote has 170,187,993 ordinary shares in issue. The deal is a court-sanctioned scheme under Part 26, with Scheme Document expected within 28 days and an expected Effective Date in Q1 2027 subject to shareholder votes, Court sanction, and competition and regulatory clearances.
This is a recommended Rule 2.7 offer, not a close. Mark 940 pence Offer Value, £1.64 billion Cash Consideration equity, and Q1 2027 as the working timetable. Do not treat CVC’s prior 915 pence line as a live firm offer, and do not invent Apollo’s bid price. The allocator object is Veritas buying the world’s largest heat-treatment and specialist thermal-processing network—about 130 facilities across 22 countries—off the London Main Market into a private aerospace-and-defence-adjacent industrial book.