Morrison's share price has jumped by more than 30% after a US private equity firm made an offer to buy the supermarket group for £5.5bn. The supermarket group's shares rose to 234.73p on Monday, just above the price proposed by Clayton Dubilier & Rice. Morrisons' board has rejected the offer, saying it "significantly undervalued" the business "and its future prospects". The move by CD&R, one of the biggest takeover firms in the world, would have been one of the most high profile of many bids for UK companies in the past year. BBC business correspondent Katie Prescott said the flurry of takeover activity was being fuelled by relatively low share prices of businesses in the UK compared to abroad and cheap money because of low interest rates. Morrisons has nearly 500 shops and employs around 118,000 people.Under UK takeover rules it has until 17 July to announce a firm intention to bid or walk away. In addition to the cash offer, CD&R would take on Morrisons' £3.2bn of debt, taking the total value of any deal to almost £9bn.
