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Nearly four in 10 UK takeovers were reported in the media before their announcement in the 14 months to May this year, triggering concerns at the financial regulator that the London stock market is becoming leakier.
The Financial Conduct Authority has issued warnings to bankers about the leaks, which have come alongside an increase in the amount of unusual trading activity shortly before the announcement of British corporate takeovers.
The release of the data in response to a Financial Times freedom of information request comes after Shell was last week forced to deny a Wall Street Journal report that it was in early-stage talks about a takeover of rival BP to create a global energy group worth more than £200bn.
The FCA found that 42 of the 110 M&A announcements involving UK-listed companies were pre-empted by media speculation between the start of April 2024 and May 29 2025.
The watchdog said it had observed “instances of announcements of potential M&A activity which appear to have been initiated by media speculation”. Its data only went back to 2024, excluded overseas listed stocks and “may not document every instance”, it said.
Officials believe the trend reflects a rise in “strategic leaks” in which companies try to manipulate takeover negotiations in their favour, such as an acquisition target trying to drum up interest from other bidders or eliminate unwanted potential acquirers by making their interest public prematurely. One banker complained to the FCA that a leak had added £42mn to the cost of an acquisition.
The 38 per cent of UK takeovers that leaked in the media appears to be higher than many other countries. Out of 509 takeovers worth more than $1bn announced globally in 2024, 31 per cent leaked in the media, according to research by H/Advisors Abernathy.
The FCA has a team of officials conducting daily surveillance of market moves, media reports and trading anomalies ahead of takeover announcements. Earlier this year it called in the heads of M&A from big investment banks to discuss how to tackle the issue alongside the Takeover Panel.
That followed a public warning to market participants by the FCA in March, in which it said it had seen an increase in M&A transactions leaking in the media.
Data to be published on Tuesday by the FCA shows that 38 per cent of UK corporate takeovers caused a positive abnormal price movement in the two days before the deal was announced in 2024 — indicating potential insider trading. That is up from a five-year average of 32 per cent.
The FCA said the data had “limitations as a broader measure of market cleanliness” despite recent changes to its methodology. “On the one hand not all insider trading results in a price impact during this period,” it said. “On the other, price moves could have been caused by financial analysts or the media correctly predicting likely takeover targets.”
The watchdog told the FT it had opened 33 investigations into potential market abuse between the start of 2020 and the end of March 2025. Just three were opened in the final year of that period.
The Takeover Panel declined to comment.
