June 4 (Reuters) - British outsourcer Mitie Group ( MITFF )

is in talks to buy smaller peer Marlowe, the

companies said on Wednesday, sending Marlowe's shares 13%

higher.

Mitie ( MITFF ), provider of security, cleaning, engineering and other

services to public and private sector clients, is required to

make a firm offer for Marlowe or walk away by July 2, according

to British takeover rules.

Smaller peer Marlowe, which has a market capitalisation of

roughly 290 million pounds ($392.31 million), provides

compliance and risk management services, including safety

inspections, to businesses across the UK.

Shares in Marlowe were 13.2% higher by 1242 GMT while

Mitie's ( MITFF ) climbed a little over 1%.

"This deal would align with Mitie's ( MITFF ) aim to complement its

core UK soft 'facilities management' with higher margin

'facilities transformation' and project up-sell work," Jefferies

analysts said in a note.

Jefferies analysts said that the deal would add about 9% to

Mitie's ( MITFF ) core profit.

The potential transaction could join a growing list of deals

in the UK with Warehouse REIT agreeing to Blackstone's bid on

Wednesday, Rentokil selling its French workwear business and

Johnson Matthey ( JMPLF ) offloading its catalyst technologies unit to

Honeywell ( HON ) in recent weeks.

The companies did not disclose the terms of the possible

offer.

($1 = 0.7392 pounds)

(Reporting by DhanushVignesh Babu in Bengaluru; Editing by

Shinjini Ganguli, Kirsten Donovanb)