Shares in steel and foundry firm Vesuvius (LON:VSVS) vaulted higher after it revealed it had been in a bid situation for a year. The shares gained as much as 30% before settling up 25% in mid-morning trade.
Bid approach began a year ago
In response to media speculation, Vesuvius admitted it had received a series of unsolicited bids dating back to September 2025. The bidder, Austrian-based but UK-listed RHI Magnesita (LON:RHIM), mines and sells high-grade refractory products for the steel industry among others.
RHI made its first approach on 29 September 2025, a year ago today, pitched at 448p per share. At the time, Vesuvius was trading around the 370p mark.
Subsequently, RHI made further approaches through late 2025 and early 2026, raising its offer to 550p in a mix of cash and shares. In June 2026, it refined its 550p offer to include 454p in cash plus RHI shares and the right to the final FY25 dividend.
The latest proposal, received on 27 August, has a total value of 551p in cash and shares plus the right to the interim FY26 dividend. This offer has the support of Swedish activist investor and long-standing Vesuvius stakeholder Cevian Capital.
Quite how and why Vesuvius has kept quiet about an ongoing bid situation for 12 months is a mystery. In the intervening period the firm has posted FY25 results, H1 2026 results and a number of progress updates.
The shares have traded as high as 500p following the FY25 numbers, and as low as 360p after the H1 2026 numbers. Yet anyone who was invested in the company during this period has presumably been totally unaware of RHI’s repeated approaches.
At the same time, the company has been awarding share incentive packages to the directors. Some have also vested shares from earlier incentives schemes in full knowledge of the ongoing bid situation.
