Laxey Partners, the shareholder activist, has made a £24m ($39m, €27m) offer for Rugby Investment Trust in the first ever cash bid for a Reit in the UK.

Laxey has built a stake of about 36 per cent in Rugby, which is the smallest Reit in the market, and has confirmed plans to make a bid at a discount of about a third to the value of its net assets per share.