LONDON (Reuters) - Shares in British engineering company Meggitt jumped 14% on Friday after the Dealreporter website said that U.S. group Woodward Inc was looking at a potential deal. Meggitt’s market capitalisation was $5 billion as of Thursday while Woodward’s stood at about $8 billion. The reported U.S. interest comes after shares in the London-listed aerospace parts maker lost about 30% in value last year when the pandemic took hold and weakness in the aviation market owing to travel restrictions forced plane makers to cut production rates. Meggitt declined to comment on the report. In March Megitt said that it could return to profit growth in 2021 provided there are no further coronavirus lockdowns. Its operating profit plunged by 53% last year. Reporting by Thyagaraju Adinarayan and Sarah Young in London, Pushkala Aripaka in Bengaluru; Writing by Keith Weir; Editing by David Goodman Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.