Blue Prism latest target of US private equity

Robotics firm Blue Prism has become the latest in a line of British companies to attract the attention of US private equity firms, but one high-profile shareholder has urged it not to sell, reports CNBC.
Blue Prism shares surged on Wednesday after it confirmed that it had entered discussions with TPG Capital and Vista Equity Partners.
However it stressed, "there can be no certainty that any offer will be made, nor as to the terms of which any offer would be made."
It comes after supermarket chain Morrisons, infrastructure group John Laing and aerospace company Cobham were all subject to transatlantic private equity approaches in recent months.
Blue Prism, one of the largest tech firms on the London Stock Exchange AIM market, uses robotic process automation (RPA) software to hire out a digital workforce to perform back office tasks for businesses.
However, in a letter sent to Blue Prism's management team on Tuesday, seen by CNBC, shareholder Coast Capital, a notable activist investor behind opposition to FirstGroup's sale of its US businesses, expressed concern about the valuation of the company.
Coast Capital believes Blue Prism is currently undervalued and it would be a mistake to agree to a takeover at the share price.
"As you are well aware, the Enterprise Value of Blue Prism PLC is currently valued at approximately three times forward revenues - an 80 per cent to 90 per cent discount to the company's peers including UiPath, Appian, WorkFusion, Automation Anywhere, etc.," the letter from Coast Capital said.
"Were a buyer to pay a premium of 100 per cent, the share price would still be materially lower than its intrinsic value, and well below where the shares were trading as recently as January 2021."