THE

latest hollowing-out of the FTSE250 by private equity firms came last week via Canada’s Brookfield, which launched a £4billion bid for emergency repairs group Homeserve.

It was a hefty 71 per cent premium to Homeserve’s pre-offer share price – but takeover watchers have been primed by brokers Liberum not to rule out a better offer. They said Brookfield’s approach was ‘reasonable but not knock-out and that the door is open to another bid’.