London, June 8, 2026, 11:06 BST
Intertek Group shares edged higher in late-morning London trading on Monday, holding up against a weaker FTSE 100 as investors counted down to EQT’s deadline to turn a possible £60-a-share approach into a firm offer.
The stock was quoted at 5,470p at 10:34 BST, up 15p, or 0.28%, according to Davy data delayed by 20 minutes. The FTSE 100, the index of the 100 largest UK companies by value, was down 0.25% at 10,342.55 in delayed Hargreaves Lansdown data.
This matters now because Intertek is in the last stretch of a UK takeover clock. The company said on May 13 its board was minded to recommend EQT’s final conditional proposal of £60 a share in cash, after rejecting earlier proposals at £51.50, £54 and £58, and the UK Takeover Panel extended EQT’s “put up or shut up” deadline to 5 p.m. on June 11. A PUSU deadline requires a bidder to make a firm offer or walk away.
At Monday’s price, Intertek traded about 8.8% below the cash terms. That is the deal spread — the gap between a target’s market price and the proposed bid price — and it shows investors are still attaching a cost to timing, due diligence and execution.
The move came on a weak tape. Global shares fell on Monday as renewed fighting between Israel and Iran lifted oil prices, with Brent crude jumping more than $4 to $97.69 a barrel and Britain’s FTSE 100 down 0.4% in early European trade, AP reported.
Intertek’s underlying business is not oil, banking or tech. It provides assurance, testing, inspection and certification services — checks that help companies prove products, supply chains and sites meet quality, safety and sustainability standards. Its divisions include consumer products, corporate assurance, health and safety, industry and infrastructure, and world of energy.
Panmure Liberum analyst Joe Brent told Reuters after EQT’s earlier £58 approach that “EQT clearly wants to own this asset”, pointing to the private-equity firm’s view of Intertek’s structural growth and financial attractions. That still frames the trade: the buyer’s appetite has been clear, but the market wants signatures. Reuters
Ben Slupecki, an equity analyst at Morningstar, wrote that Morningstar saw the deal as making sense for Intertek but said “we find the acquisition price expensive” for EQT. He said the £60 proposal implied EV/EBITA of roughly 12 times, in line with testing and certification peers Bureau Veritas and SGS. EV/EBITA means enterprise value divided by earnings before interest, tax and amortisation, a quick way to compare a takeover price with operating profit before some costs. Morningstar
That peer read-across matters. Intertek sits in a market where scale, global laboratories and trusted customer relationships can carry a premium, and where listed rivals such as Bureau Veritas and SGS remain reference points for buyers and public-market investors.
The bid has also fed a broader London-market debate. Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell, said after Intertek’s board signalled support for the EQT proposal: “One by one companies are being picked off the UK stock market.” Intertek had been reviewing a possible separation of its energy and infrastructure arm before pausing that work after the final proposal. The Guardian
But the discount is not a rounding error. EQT still has to get through due diligence and agree final documents, and a possible offer is not the same as a firm bid. A sharper market selloff, a financing wobble or an unexpected issue in review could widen the spread fast.
June 11 is the line. Until then, Intertek is trading less like a normal industrial stock and more like a deal stock — supported by the offer price, capped by uncertainty, and watched for one announcement.
