'Foreign vultures' circle UK companies
He predicts that Shanks, the FTSE 250 waste industrial firm which recently rebuffed an approach from Carlyle Group, is likely to attract further bids, as would International Power, which has been linked to France's GDF Suez.
But McLean said many industrial firms are likely to find it difficult to rebuff takeover bids this year due to the continued weakness of sterling against most major foreign currencies.
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Hide Ad"We are at that stage in the cycle where balance sheets are quite strong and globally the pound is quite low," he said. "We have some British industrial companies with very interesting strategic interests. Some are quite small versus US and European ones."