John Foldes, finance director of Vaillant-Hepworth, the German privately owned domestic heating group, would like to send an open invitation to mergers and acquisitions bankers to come and talk.

He says: "We're ready for acquisitions. We're at €1.8bn ($2.2bn) in revenues and we want to grow organically and inorganically. We need to look at new areas. People can come to us with ideas in things like heat pumps, air conditioning, or solar power. We're number two in Europe and we want to be number one. Acquisitions, together with organic growth, would enable us to take the number one spot."