London, May 14, 2026, 11:06 BST
- Intertek says it plans to back EQT’s £60-a-share cash offer, if due diligence checks out and final paperwork lines up.
- The board has hit pause on its strategic review into splitting off the Energy & Infrastructure segment from Testing & Assurance.
- EQT faces a June 11 deadline to either submit a binding bid or pull out, as required by UK takeover regulations.
Intertek Group plc edged toward a potential sale to Sweden’s EQT after the board indicated it would likely back a £60-per-share cash offer—this comes after three prior rejections. EQT is now set to start confirmatory due diligence, those last reviews before any binding agreement is inked.
What’s at stake? The latest proposal puts the London-listed product testing giant at roughly £9.4 billion, or $12.7 billion. That would make this Britain’s third-biggest private equity deal ever, trailing only BAA in 2006 and Alliance Boots in 2007, according to LSEG data cited by Reuters.
Intertek’s reach goes beyond lab work. The company handles assurance, testing, inspection, and certification—ATIC, as it’s known—helping businesses verify product, asset, and supply chain compliance with safety, quality, and sustainability benchmarks. Across more than 1,000 labs and offices, Intertek runs operations in upwards of 100 countries.
EQT is now offering £60 a share in cash, and Intertek investors would be able to pocket a final dividend of up to 107.7 pence per share—if that’s approved at the May 20 AGM—on top of the takeover price. The cash bid comes in 59% above Intertek’s April 9 close, the day before EQT first made its move, according to EQT.
Intertek shares jumped up to 8% on Wednesday, touching £57.20—a level not seen in over four years—but shares remain under the proposed cash offer. The difference isn’t huge. Still, it’s enough to signal lingering execution risk for investors.
The board had been favoring a different approach. Back in April, Intertek kicked off a strategic review to gauge whether to split off Intertek Testing & Assurance—projected to bring in around £1.9 billion in 2025 revenue—from its Intertek Energy & Infrastructure segment, expected at about £1.6 billion. First-quarter like-for-like revenue rose 5.4%. That measure focuses on core businesses and adjusts for effects like currency swings.
Back in April, Chief Executive André Lacroix pointed to two specialist ATIC units that “could be best positioned to accelerate growth”—that was the plan as a spin-off. Now, though, the board has paused those preparations with EQT kicking the tires. Intertek
Intertek maintained it believes in its standalone approach but said the latest financial terms would give enough cash value for its board to recommend the deal, if EQT moves forward with a firm offer at those levels. The company noted the proposal still depends on due diligence and finalizing transaction documents.
“As the offer kept climbing, so did the pressure,” Morningstar’s Ben Slupecki said to Reuters. He noted management could no longer convincingly claim they’d achieve similar value independently. Reuters also pointed out that Intertek had been under investor pressure, including from Lost Coast Collective. Reuters
Intertek faces tough competition. Among its main rivals are SGS from Switzerland and France’s Bureau Veritas, which looked at merging last year—a deal that would have produced a testing and certification heavyweight valued above $30 billion before negotiations broke off. Scale is still a key factor in this fragmented sector.
Still, nothing’s sealed yet. Intertek’s filing made clear there’s no guarantee of a formal offer—even after any preconditions get ticked off. Should due diligence uncover issues or the paperwork hit a snag, shares could lose some of their bid-driven gains, and management might be forced to restart the strategic review.
Mark your calendar: May 20 is when shareholders cast ballots on the final dividend. Then comes June 11, the new cutoff for EQT to either formalize its bid or walk away. For those holding shares, the decision is sharpening—grab the immediate payout, or ride out Intertek’s breakup strategy in hopes of a bigger payoff down the line.
