Private equity firms spent the first half of the year reluctant to fill their cupboards with UK investments. But now, impatient to spend the record piles of cash they have amassed, buyout groups are whizzing around the markets looking to fill their shopping trolleys with bargains. And public companies are at the top of the list.

In June alone, there were almost $10bn-worth of private equity deals in the UK announced across several sectors, making it by far the most active month this year, according to data from Preqin. These included TDR Capital’s $2.4bn all-cash offer for BCA Marketplace, which owns the second-hand car dealing website WeBuyAnyCar. Just two days later, a consortium which included Blackstone and Lego’s founding family announced a deal to take Merlin Entertainments private in a deal that valued the world’s second biggest operator of theme parks after Disney at just under $6bn, including debt.