The ShareProphets Great British Takeover Stakes competition has launched, inviting readers to name the UK-listed companies they believe will receive a bid, with the winner earning a week’s stay at founder Tom Winnifrith’s Greek retreat, covering only pool and cleaning costs.
Great British Takeover Stakes: How It Works
Each entrant submits their top five UK-listed companies they expect to be taken over. The competition is tracking those picks that received four or more selections as a group called ‘The Takeover 12’, with their performance being measured against the FTSE 100 and a second benchmark index.
The prize is deliberately low-key: a week outside peak season at the Greek Hovel, with pool and cleaning fees the only cost to the winner. It is the kind of quirky incentive that fits Winnifrith’s style as a commentator.
Winnifrith is the founder and editor of ShareProphets.com, and has a long background in financial media. According to BusinessCloud, he has worked as a financial journalist for Investors Chronicle and the London Evening Standard, previously served as resident investment expert on the Channel 4 game show ‘Show Me The Money’, and was founder and chief executive of former ISDX-listed Rivington Street Holdings, stepping down in 2011.
Why the Timing of This Competition Matters
The Great British Takeover Stakes lands at a moment when the UK bid market is genuinely busy. According to law firm Slaughter and May, the first half of 2025 was the strongest six-month period for UK takeover volume by number of firm offers, with 41 firm offers made, in well over 15 years. UK corporates accounted for over 40% of those firm offers, predominantly targeting small- and mid-cap companies.
The full-year picture for 2025 is equally active. AJ Bell found that 64 UK-listed companies received a bid during 2025, of which 51 deals either completed or remained live and 13 bid situations fell through. Trade buyers accounted for half of all UK-listed takeover activity. Four stocks attracted bid premiums greater than 100%, with the highest being Trakm8, where acquirer Brillian offered 280% more than the prevailing market value.
The year before was notable in deal value rather than volume. Data from Yahoo Finance shows there were £49 billion worth of successful UK takeover bids in 2024, up from £17.2 billion in 2023. The average deal value reached £1.07 billion in 2024, nearly three times the £390 million average recorded in 2023. Five FTSE 100 companies received takeover offers that year, alongside 19 firms in the FTSE 250.
For ISA and SIPP holders who pick individual UK shares, this environment has real consequences. A bid premium (the additional price an acquirer pays above the market price to secure a company) can deliver an instant, substantial gain on a position. The flip side is that companies seen as takeover targets can trade at elevated prices already, reducing the upside if a bid never materialises or if a situation falls through, as 13 did in 2025.
The Great British Takeover Stakes is not investment advice, but it does focus attention on a corner of the market where retail investors can, and do, capture material returns. With UK smaller companies continuing to attract both domestic and overseas buyers at a pace not seen for well over a decade, the exercise of thinking carefully about which businesses look like credible acquisition targets is worth doing seriously.
The binary outcome here is straightforward: if the UK economic backdrop improves and sterling remains competitive against the dollar, overseas acquirers have strong incentive to keep picking off undervalued UK-listed businesses. If conditions tighten, deal flow cools quickly. Watch the pace of firm offer announcements through the rest of 2025 as the clearest early signal.
