London, May 19, 2026, 16:05 BST
- Intertek was last quoted 0.7% lower at 5,505p/5,510p, trading below EQT’s possible £60 per share offer.
- The company has its AGM set for Wednesday, and the 2025 final dividend is linked to the takeover terms.
- EQT faces a June 11 deadline to either put forward a firm offer or step back, as required by UK takeover rules.
Intertek Group shares lost ground Tuesday, with the FTSE 100 testing specialist trading below Swedish private equity firm EQT’s possible £60 per share cash bid. Investors are watching for what happens next in what could be one of London’s biggest possible buyouts this year.
Intertek shares were at 5,505p to sell and 5,510p to buy, off 40p, or 0.72%, on lagged Hargreaves Lansdown figures. The FTSE 100 was flat, down 0.03%. Intertek’s market cap was about £8.46 billion. HL
That gap versus the offer price is key. The market is still leaving some risk that the deal could fall through, despite Intertek’s board saying last week they would be minded to back EQT’s final proposal if it comes as a firm offer.
EQT is offering £60 per share in cash for Intertek, and said that shareholders can also get the 2025 final dividend of up to 107.7p per share if it’s approved at the AGM on Wednesday. According to EQT, that brings total value up to £61.077 per share.
Intertek said its £60 offer came after three earlier bids at £51.50, £54, and £58 a share were turned down. The board said it still backed its standalone plan, but said after talking with shareholders it would be ready to recommend the new terms if the final documentation is agreed.
The company has halted its strategic review, which included looking at options for parts of the business, and is now letting EQT carry out confirmatory due diligence. This is the due diligence step before a potential formal offer. The UK Takeover Panel pushed back EQT’s “put up or shut up” deadline to 5 p.m. on June 11, giving the bidder more time to make a firm bid or walk away.
Morningstar’s Ben Slupecki said Monday the £60 price comes in 21% higher than his £49.50 fair value call. That works out to an EV/EBITA of about 12x, which is similar to listed names like Bureau Veritas and SGS, he said. EV/EBITA measures a company’s enterprise value, including debt, against operating earnings before interest, tax and amortisation. Morningstar
Intertek’s bid “makes sense,” Slupecki said, but the price looks high to him. He said Intertek shares could approach the offer as the deal gets closer to closing, or drop if it falls apart. Morningstar
The bid is part of a broader surge in overseas buying of UK assets. Reuters said Monday that UK M&A deals had hit $192 billion so far in 2026, up more than three times from this stage last year. Moves for Intertek, Schroders and Unilever’s food arm are some of the biggest deals this year. Reuters
Clifford Chance partner Dominic Ross told Reuters the UK is a “tried and tested market”, citing the country’s takeover rules. Ross said most of the deals are coming from the US, as buyers see UK-listed shares as still relatively cheap. Reuters
Intertek is in the testing, inspection and certification industry, helping companies show products, supply chains and assets meet safety or quality standards. Taking the company private would take out a London-listed competitor to SGS and Bureau Veritas. Scale in the sector has been a focus—Reuters said last year SGS and Bureau Veritas talked about a tie-up that would have created a group valued at over $30 billion. Reuters
Risks remain. Intertek’s statement said there’s no guarantee an offer will come, even if preconditions go through. If EQT stays on the sidelines and doesn’t make a firm offer, investors may have to look again at Intertek’s standalone growth outlook, the halted strategic review, and whether the company can narrow the valuation gap with rivals in Europe.
