EQT agrees to buy Intertek in about £10.7 billion deal

EQT has reached a firm agreement to buy Intertek in a deal valuing the FTSE 100 testing, inspection and certification group at about £10.7 billion including debt.

The Swedish private equity group will pay £60 a share in cash, plus Intertek’s 2025 final dividend, taking the total consideration to £61.077 a share. Intertek’s board has recommended the offer.

The transaction turns months of pursuit into a binding takeover agreement and gives Intertek shareholders a clear cash exit after a period of pressure around the company’s valuation.

Deal terms

The agreed terms are all cash. That gives investors an immediate payout rather than a roll-over into the combined business.

Reporting on the deal also put the equity value at £9.3 billion in cash. The larger enterprise value reflects Intertek’s debt.

EQT said it was committed to expanding Intertek through acquisitions and innovation, according to reporting.

How the deal came together

The agreement follows three earlier EQT offers that were rejected before the board settled on terms it could recommend.

On May 13, Intertek said it was minded to recommend EQT’s latest £60-a-share proposal if a formal offer was made. At that point, the transaction was still conditional and the parties were continuing negotiations.

By June 18, those talks had turned into a firm deal. The change mattered because it moved the process from an indicative approach to a board-backed agreement with defined terms.

Why Intertek was in play

Intertek is one of the UK’s better-known testing, inspection and certification companies. It sits in the FTSE 100 and has long been viewed as a high-quality industrial services business.

The company had also been under pressure from some shareholders to accept a bid. That pressure helped create the conditions for a sale once EQT returned with a stronger proposal.

Earlier background reporting suggested Intertek had been considering strategic alternatives, including a possible separation of parts of the business, before the takeover process gathered pace.

Market context

The bid adds to a run of private equity interest in UK-listed companies, where valuations have often lagged those of comparable businesses elsewhere.

A successful takeover would remove another FTSE 100 name from London’s public market. For shareholders, the premium offers an immediate exit; for the market, it is another sign of continuing pressure on large UK listed companies to justify their public valuations.

The reported offer represented a 61% premium to Intertek’s share price before EQT’s first proposal, helping explain why the bid has drawn attention despite the company’s earlier resistance.

What happens next

The transaction still needs shareholder approval before it can complete.

Remaining regulatory and completion steps also have to be worked through, and markets will watch closely for any dissenting shareholder response or competing developments.

If the process runs smoothly, the deal would be one of the year’s biggest UK takeovers and another major London-listed company leaving the public market.

For now, the key milestone is that the board has moved from considering a bid to recommending a firm cash offer.