THE PROPOSED £15bn takeover of Britain's largest electricity distributor by a consortium led by KKR and Australia's Macquarie collapsed yesterday after a last-minute demand to raise the sale price.

Billionaire tycoon Li Ka-shing's CK Infrastructure Holdings (CKI) - which bought UK Power Networks for £5.5bn in 2010 - tried to elevate the sale price just two days before the deal was due to be signed last month, according to The Financial Times.

The six-member consortium decided the asking price was too high and pulled out of the takeover.

CKI's decision follows a sharp rise in UK inflation which is currently running at 9.1 per cent, its highest level since the early 1980s.

(c) 2022 City A.M., source Newspaper