The value of foreign take-overs of UK firms so far this year has doubled to £148billion, the highest in five years, according to stark figures.

Major deals have included warehouse and data centre owner Segro’s acquisition by US-based Prologis for £13.5billion and the sale of product-testing firm Intertek to Swedish buyout group EQT for £10.6billion.

The figures from London Stock Exchange Group underline fears the UK market is being hollowed out by foreign predators picking up British firms on the cheap.

Low valuations are making the jewels of corporate Britain look like bargains for private equity titans.

Major deals so far this year are stripping the FTSE 100 of the likes of Schroders – the two-century-old City institution sold to US rival Nuveen for £9.9billion – and Lloyd’s of London insurer Beazley, swallowed up by Zurich Insurance for £8.1billion.

Other companies falling into the hands of foreign buyers include low-cost airline easyJet, snapped up for £5.7bn by US private equity giant Apollo.

Yesterday’s figures showed the value of deals where UK companies were the target was up by 75 per cent to £184billion. 

The growth was driven by a surge in ‘inbound’ transactions, where the buyers were from overseas, up 97 per cent to £148billion.

Just more than half were from the US, representing 403 deals worth a total of £75billion. Companies from France, Luxembourg and Switzerland were the next biggest buyers of UK firms.

But even as the total value of inbound deals soared, their number fell by 13 per cent to 1,030, implying the individual takeovers were getting bigger.

Overall, announced deals with any UK involvement were up by 52 per cent to £316billion.

The value of deals in which British companies bought foreign firms climbed 22 per cent to £62billion, though again the number of deals fell 13 per cent to 931.

This week, two more UK-listed firms worth a combined £1billion – Ashtead Technology and asset manager Pollen Street – opened the door to private equity takeovers.