New development in bid battle for Evolution Group

The bid battle for City investment bank and wealth manager Evolution Group hotted up today.

Canaccord Financial, the Canadian group, came out with a statement that it "is considering making an approach" and has "held preliminary discussions" with Evolution.

That would have been the first potential counter bidder to South Africa's Investec which announced its bid approcah earlier this month.

Then Evolution came out with its own statement making it clear that it has received interest from more than just the two named suitors.

It said: "The Board further confirms that it has received approaches from a number of other parties interested in either part or the whole of the Company. All approaches are at a very early stage and the Board is far from certain as to the terms of any potential offer or that any will ultimately result in an offer being made."

Evolution shares jumped 9p to 911/2p which values the group at almost £200 million.

Only yesterday Evolution's chief executive Alex Snow anounced the sudden departure of its finance director Andrew Westenberger and the reappointment of heavy hitter Lord MacLaurin as a non-executive director.

Analysts said the sudden increase in interest in the business could well push any successful takeover bid well above 100p a share. Less than two months ago they hit a low of 621/2p.