Another FTSE firm is under attack from a US raider. Demand top dollar | Nils Pratley

H ere we go (yet) again: another opportunistic takeover bid from the US for a UK company. The fun at easyJet isn’t even over yet, but the next target is Segro, the property firm known as Slough Estates until the branding merchants decided a slicker name was needed for a portfolio that these days extends well beyond Berkshire and deep into continental Europe. Warehouses and logistics centres stir few sentimental or patriotic feelings but Segro is the biggest commercial landlord on the London stock market. If it eventually falls to Prologis of the US, we will be asking – not for the first time – whether the UK knows how to value what’s under its own nose. One assumes Prologis’s approach at £12.6bn , or 925p a share, is an opening shot because it was obviously going to get a firm no – “a long way short of Segro’s own views on value,” said the target’s board. Quite: 925p is merely the per-share value of the assets, the first valuation yardstick in property-land. It is true that Segro shares were almost 25% below that price on Tuesday. It is also the case that plenty of UK property groups, or real estate investment trusts (REITs), have changed hands at less than asset-value in recent years. But there are also reasons Segro is slightly different – and why it would be depressing if it was taken out at less than a rich price. For starters, big-box warehouses, which are 35% of the portfolio, are at the in-demand end of the property market in the age of online shopping. …