It is so surreal it’s like sitting with Salvador Dali to watch lobsters eat with chopsticks. A virtually unknown Chinese company with a market value of €400m ($534m) and no acquisition record makes an all-cash €1bn takeover offer for a Dutch cable company, outbidding an Italian cable company by almost 20 per cent.

That’s the scenario taking place around Draka, Europe’s third-biggest cable maker. Just hours after Draka agreed to a cash-and-shares offer from Italy’s Prysmian valuing it at about €840m, Tianjin Xinmao Science and Technology Investment Group gatecrashed the party with a knockout offer.

The bid came so far out of left field that some bankers thought it might be one of those hoaxes that market tricksters try on every now and again. For example, last year’s bogus announcement from the fictitious Arabian Peninsula Group that said it wanted to buy audio equipment maker Harman International for a 100 per cent premium.