IQE shares soar as takeover speculation resumes following disclosures

Thu, 26th Feb 2026 16:05

(Alliance News) - IQE PLC shares on Thursday continued their rally after the company again found itself at the centre of takeover speculation.

Shares in IQE climbed 28% to 20.50 pence each on Thursday afternoon in London, and have more than doubled over the last 30 days.

The Cardiff-based supplier of advanced compound semiconductor wafer products and material solutions again appeared on the Takeover Panel's disclosure list, with an offer period commenced in September last year.

No offeror has been named so far, despite the company saying it was negotiating non-binding offers for both the group as a whole and certain assets back in January.

However, Deutsche Bank on Thursday morning filed a disclosure under rule 8.5 of the takeover code, saying it purchased 237,469 and sold 284,992 IQE shares on Wednesday in a client-serving capacity to IQE.

That disclosure was followed later this morning by a disclosure under rule 8.3 by River Global stating that an entity owning over 1% of IQE's shares sold over 1.9 million shares, now controlling just short of 2% of the issued capital.

At midday, Peel Hunt also released a form 8.5 disclosure, having said it purchased almost 10.4 million IQE shares and sold close to 10.8 million.

By Martin Miraglia, Alliance News reporter

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