Prologis, the world's largest owner of industrial real estate, said it made a 12.6 billion-pound ($16.63 billion) takeover approach for smaller U.K. peer Segro, which turned down the proposal.

The move marks the latest takeover attempt of a U.K.-listed company by a U.S. suitor as trans-Atlantic dealmaking expands across sectors, depleting the London Stock Exchange of some of its longest-standing members. Prologis's approach for Segro follows American bids for budget airline easyJet, ingredients maker Tate & Lyle, energy distributor DCC and asset manager Schroders earlier in the year.

Segro said Prologis's proposal was opportunistically timed and sought to take advantage of a dislocation between its share price and its prospects accentuated by geopolitical turmoil.

"The board of Segro has unanimously and unequivocally rejected the proposal, which falls a long way short of Segro's own views on value," it said.

For Prologis, a potential Segro buyout would be its largest deal since the $26 billion--including debt--acquisition of Duke Realty in 2022. Through that deal, the San Francisco-based company boosted its exposure to e-commerce in the wake of the pandemic. More recently, Prologis has been looking to expand its data-center footprint to capitalize on artificial-intelligence demand.

Under Prologis's all-stock proposal, Segro shareholders would have received 0.084 new Prologis shares for each Segro share held, implying a value of 925 pence a share, the U.S. company said Wednesday. This represents a 25% premium to Segro's closing price on Tuesday, it added.

Shares in Segro jumped 15% to 855.20 pence in European morning trading Wednesday, but were still below the value of the offer.

Prologis said it sees a clear strategic rationale for a combination and urged Segro investors to encourage the board to engage in talks and allow an offer to be put to shareholders.

Segro shareholders would hold about 10.5% of Prologis after completion of the proposed combination, which would offer them diversification into global growth markets, Prologis said.

As part of Prologis, Segro would be better positioned to advance its development and data-center pipeline than as a standalone company thanks to its platform, balance-sheet strength and access to capital, the U.S. company said.

Prologis also cited its experience integrating big deals and extracting synergies, saying its European portfolio is highly complementary with Segro's and has potential to benefit from greater scale.

In response, Segro said its board remains confident in its ability to deliver substantial value for shareholders in coming years. The company has a clear strategy, a strong balance sheet and an attractive development pipeline, including in data centers, it added.

Under U.K. takeover rules, Prologis has until July 22 to either make a firm offer or walk away.

Write to Adria Calatayud at adria.calatayud@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 24, 2026 05:52 ET (09:52 GMT)

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