The amount of money that buyers of companies are willing to pay above the share price of the target appears to be defying the laws of economics. As the pool of potential buyers for an asset shrinks, logic dictates, the less the seller of a business can expect to get.

At a time of financial upheaval, when companies are being forced into disposals to preserve capital, private equity funds are closed for business and willing buyers cannot secure financing, one might expect that the few buyers there are could offer the minimum to secure their targets.