Britvic has rejected a takeover offer from Danish brewing firm, Carlsberg, valued at £3.1bn.

The second proposal by Carlsberg on 11 June was valued at 1,250 pence a share, after an initial offer of 1,200 pence a share on 6 June.

However, Britvic, which owns the Robinsons brand and has the license to sell Pepsi products in the UK, said that the offer "significantly undervalues" the firm and "its current and future prospects".

Under takeover rules, Carlsberg now has until 19 July to announce a firm intention to make an offer for Britvic or walk away from the deal.

Investment director at AJ Bell, Russ Mould, said: "Carlsberg is not the first company you would suggest when trying to compile a list of potential buyers for Britvic. It is known for selling beer and lager, but there have been hints it wanted to diversify. A ‘Beyond Beer’ strategy is in place and has seen the company explore other avenues such as hard seltzers. Britvic would effectively act as a springboard to accelerate that diversification and take the company into an adjacent market.

"Carlsberg seems to have taken the view that it needs to diversify to protect its future and Britvic looked like a ripe opportunity potentially at a reasonable price. Two rejected approaches later, Carlsberg needs to decide how much it wants to own Britvic as it will have to dig a lot deeper to win over the board and shareholders."

Head of markets at interactive investor, Richard Hunter, added: "Britvic shares surged by 15% after revealing that it had been the subject of two unsolicited approaches from Carlsberg, both of which it rejected. While there is no guarantee that any takeover will happen, the news is the latest confirmation that there are many overseas companies running the slide rule over UK PLC.

"The resultant merger and acquisition activity which has been seen is something of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it recognises that there are many well-run businesses who are trading at a discount to their true value and are therefore attractive bid targets. On the other hand, it also reduces the number of companies listed which is a real current concern for policymakers and which has yet to be addressed."

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