Britain’s biggest warehouse group has knocked back a £12.6billion takeover offer as the London stock market becomes a ‘hunting ground’ for foreign predators.

As the ‘stampede’ of overseas bids for UK firms picks up pace, the board of Segro said it ‘unanimously and unequivocally rejected’ a proposal from US rival Prologis worth 925p a share.

Segro – which is expanding into data centres as it looks to capitalise on demand for the infrastructure behind the artificial intelligence boom – is just the latest FTSE 100 firm to be approached this year.

Two-century old City institution Schroders, Lloyd’s of London insurer Beazley and laboratory testing group Intertek have each backed foreign takeovers while energy firm DCC looks set to follow suit.

Aerospace supplier Senior, ingredients maker Tate & Lyle and William Hill owner Evoke have also succumbed to takeover bids.

However, like Segro, Easyjet this week rebuffed a £4.7billion offer from Castlelake and accused the US investment fund of trying to buy it ‘on the cheap’.

Neil Wilson, a strategist at Saxo, said: ‘UK plc is on sale, but firms are putting up a fight.’

San Francisco-based Prologis – the world’s largest logistics real estate investment trust (REIT) – put forward a proposal to buy Segro on June 16 but the offer was rejected on June 23.

Under the deal, Segro shareholders would own around 10.5 per cent of the combined group, with Prologis arguing the tie-up would ‘unlock the significant embedded value of Segro’s development and data centre pipeline’.

Prologis said it was going public with the approach in an attempt to get the backing of Segro investors having been turned away by the board.

Segro, which owns warehouses and data centres mainly in the South East of England, said the proposed offer ‘falls a long way short of Segro’s own views on value’.

It said it was ‘opportunistically timed’ given the ‘clear dislocation between Segro’s current share price and its highly attractive underlying business and strong prospects’.

Segro shares peaked above 1400p in 2021 but fell to around 600p last year.

The stock rose as much as 20 per cent to 892p on Wednesday.

The wave of takeover activity has set the scene for a record year of dealmaking and fuelled concerns that undervalued UK firms are an easy target for foreign buyers.

At the same time, a shortage of new listings through initial public offerings, and a steady flow of delistings and defections to other exchanges such as New York, threatens the standing of the London stock market.

Susannah Streeter, chief investment strategist at Wealth Club, said: ‘Suitors are coming thick and fast, attempting to woo over shareholders in British firms.

‘While some have been rebuffed this week, such as the takeover bids for Segro from Prologis and easyJet from Castlelake, the direction of travel is clear.

‘British markets are increasingly becoming a hunting ground for sophisticated institutional investors, with UK-listed stocks continuing to trade at lower valuations than other markets.’

She added: ‘With the pound falling back as the dollar strengthens and UK assets feeling the effects of uncertainty on the UK political scene, British firms will stay sought after. The stampede to take over slices of the UK market, at an attractive price, isn’t likely to slow any time soon.’

Analysts suggested other property companies, or REITs, could become targets following the bid for Segro.

Oli Creasey, head of property research at Quilter Cheviot, said: ‘Segro may be the biggest fish in the UK REIT pond, but is a minnow compared to Prologis. It remains to be seen whether the combination will go ahead but the very fact that it was deemed possible means that the entire sector could be back in the shop window for even larger, foreign companies.’