London, June 10, 2026, 14:03 BST
- Intertek shares traded at 5,510p on Wednesday afternoon, down 15p, leaving them about 8% below EQT’s £60-a-share cash proposal.
- The latest regulatory feed was dominated by UK takeover-code dealing disclosures, not a firm offer announcement.
- EQT’s “put up or shut up” deadline is 17:00 BST on Thursday, June 11. Thetakeoverpanel
Intertek Group plc shares edged lower on Wednesday as investors waited for EQT to decide whether its £60-a-share approach will become a binding takeover offer. The testing and inspection group traded at 5,510p, down 0.27%, after moving between 5,450p and 5,565p, according to delayed market data. The stock’s small decline matters because the gap to the possible offer price is now the main signal traders are watching.
That gap is not trivial. At 5,510p, Intertek is roughly 490p below EQT’s £60 cash proposal, a discount of about 8%. In merger trading, that discount is the “spread” — the market’s shorthand for the risk that a proposed deal may not complete, may take longer than expected, or may never become a formal bid. Investegate
The stock had already lost some momentum before Wednesday. Intertek closed at 5,570p on Monday, then 5,525p on Tuesday, and was quoted at 5,510p on Wednesday afternoon. That leaves the shares below their mid-May highs and short of the 5,720p 52-week range shown by market data providers.
The reason is simple: investors no longer see Intertek as a routine earnings story. It is a deadline story. The UK Takeover Panel’s disclosure table lists Intertek as being in an offer period, with EQT X EUR SCSp and EQT X USD SCSp identified as the offeror and a Rule 2.6 deadline of 17:00 on June 11. Rule 2.6 is the UK “put up or shut up” rule, requiring a potential bidder either to announce a firm intention to make an offer or to walk away. Thetakeoverpanel
Wednesday’s regulatory traffic underlined that point. The latest Intertek entries on Investegate were mostly Form 8.3 and Form 8.5 notices, the standard takeover-period disclosures for investors with 1% or more interests and for exempt principal traders. These filings show activity around the offer situation, but they do not themselves amount to a firm bid.
EQT’s final proposal, announced last month, offered £60.00 per Intertek share in cash. Intertek’s board said it was minded to recommend the financial terms if EQT announces a firm offer on those terms, subject to due diligence, full terms and transaction documents. The board also paused its strategic review to give EQT access to confirmatory due diligence.
The headline value was higher for some shareholders because EQT’s proposal allowed eligible holders to keep Intertek’s 107.7p final dividend without reducing the £60 cash consideration. That dividend is due to be paid on June 24 to shareholders who were on the register at close of business on May 29, so today’s clean trading comparison is the £60 cash element, not the full “up to £61.077” figure. Investegate
The offer came after Intertek had already started reshaping its own story. In April, the company launched a strategic review to examine a possible sale or demerger of Intertek Energy & Infrastructure from the rest of the group. At the same time, it reported 5.4% like-for-like revenue growth in the first quarter; like-for-like revenue strips out changes such as acquisitions and disposals to give a cleaner comparison with the prior period.
That standalone plan has not disappeared, but it has been put on ice. Intertek said the review would pause while EQT carried out confirmatory due diligence, and that is why the share price is now being pulled more by takeover probability than by the company’s first-quarter operating numbers.
The risk for shareholders is that a non-binding proposal is still not a deal. Intertek’s own announcement said there can be no certainty that an offer will be made, even if the preconditions are met or waived. If EQT walks away, investors may have to value Intertek again on its own growth targets, margin progress and possible break-up plan rather than on a £60 cash exit.
There is also a valuation anchor on the downside. Before the takeover situation, Intertek reported 2025 revenue of £3.43 billion, adjusted operating profit of £619.6 million and an 18.1% adjusted margin, while guiding for mid-single-digit like-for-like revenue growth in 2026. Those figures help explain why the board resisted earlier bids, but they may not fully protect the shares if the offer premium disappears.
The next move is now compressed into one event: by 17:00 BST on Thursday, EQT must either turn its approach into a firm offer for Intertek or say it does not intend to bid.
