US aerospace firm Transdigm has launched a bid to hijack fellow engineer Parker’s £6.3bn takeover of Meggitt, the FTSE 250 firm revealed today.

Yesterday Cleveland-based Transdigm made a 900p per share bid for the British firm, topping its rival’s bid by 100p and valuing the company at £7bn.

The fresh bid, which comes just days after Meggitt agreed to Parker’s offer, sent shares in the firm up 18.2 per cent to 845p.

The Coventry-headquartered firm makes components and sub-systems such as brakes used on more than 70,000 civil and military aircraft worldwide.

The engineer’s board said that it was reviewing the potential offer, especially whether Transdigm would make the same commitments to the firm as Parker had.

In order to appease those anxious that its takeover could raise national security questions, Parker had agreed a series of commitments to the UK government.

These included maintaining the firm’s UK headquarters, ensuring a majority of UK nationals remain on the company’s board, and keeping the existing R&D, engineering and manufacturing headcount in Britain. 

A quarter of its 9,000 staff are in the UK across 39 sites.

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In a statement, Meggitt said it would “continue to recommend unanimously the offer by Parker to Meggitt shareholders”.

“The Board of Meggitt believes Parker’s offer continues to represent an attractive proposition for Meggitt’s shareholders and for its broader stakeholders, including its employees, pension schemes and customers, together with HM Government, for the long-term.”

Since it was founded in 1993, Transdigm has grown to a company employing over 14,000 people, with revenue of $5.1bn in 2020.

It has powered most of its expansion through persistent M&A, having bought some 60 companies in its first quarter century in existence.

The firm, a constituent of the S&P 500, listed in 2006.

Yesterday it published its third quarter results, with net sales for the quarter coming in at $1.2bn, up from $1bn the prior period.

Despite the update, it did not reveal its bid for Meggitt yesterday.