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(Bloomberg) — Some top investors in Intertek Group Plc are pushing the British product-testing company to engage with private equity suitor EQT AB, people with knowledge of the matter said.
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Canada’s PineStone Asset Management Inc. recently wrote a letter to Intertek’s board urging them to open dialogue with EQT, the people said. Montreal-based PineStone is Intertek’s third-biggest shareholder with a roughly 4% stake, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
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Some other top 20 investors have also been pressuring Intertek to engage with EQT, after it rejected several takeover bids from the buyout firm and said it wants to keep pursuing a potential breakup, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private.
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This week, EQT raised its offer for Intertek to £58 per share, or roughly £8.9 billion ($12.1 billion). Intertek said Friday it’s rejecting the latest bid, which it said “significantly undervalues” the company and carries “significant execution risk given its conditional nature.”
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Certain top shareholders believe that while the latest bid is not enough to get a deal done, it’s close enough that the Intertek board should start engaging, the people said. Some of them are hoping that EQT will increase its proposal to around £60 per share or more, according to the people.
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Shares in Intertek were trading 6% lower in early trading in London Friday, giving the company a market value of around £7.3 billion.
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Deliberations ongoing and there’s no certainty of a deal, the people said. Representatives for EQT and Intertek declined to comment. A representative for PineStone didn’t respond to emailed queries.
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Intertek announced a strategic review in April. In its statement on Friday, the company said it had received an “encouraging level of interest” from potential buyers for its Intertek Energy & Infrastructure business.
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—With assistance from Swetha Gopinath, Vinicy Chan and Matthew Monks.
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