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Saturday, 9 May 2026

Compiled with AI from public news sources. Folio is editorial commentary for commercial-awareness practice, not legal advice. Verify any detail against the linked sources before relying on it professionally.

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Top Story/M&A

Slaughter and May-Advised Intertek Rejects EQT's Third Sweetened £9 Billion Takeover Proposal

Intertek Group PLC, the London-listed laboratory testing and quality assurance company, has rejected a third takeover proposal from a subsidiary of EQT AB, the Swedish private equity firm, dismissing the latest sweetened offer as continuing to undervalue the business and carrying too much execution risk. The rejection was advised by Slaughter and May, making this one of the more prominent UK public M&A contests of the year. Goldman Sachs is also named in connection with the deal. EQT's approach would, if successful, represent one of the largest PE-backed take-privates of a FTSE-listed company in recent years, with the headline offer pitched at approximately £9 billion. Intertek operates across testing, inspection, and certification — sectors that have attracted strong PE interest given their defensive earnings profiles and recurring revenue characteristics. The board's repeated rejection of EQT's advances signals either a valuation gap that has not yet closed or residual concerns about deal certainty, including financing conditionality. Under the UK Takeover Code, EQT faces deadlines to either firm up or walk away, meaning the competitive tension in this situation is likely to escalate in coming weeks. No competing bidder has been publicly identified.

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Regulation

EU Fund Managers Push Back Against Proposed Shareholder Rights Directive Overhaul, Warning of Unintended Market Consequences

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International

PE-Backed JMG Group Acquires Trio of UK Insurance Brokers in English Midlands Regional Expansion

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Bigger Picture

Sector Watch

European Bank Consolidation Pressure

The UniCredit-Commerzbank standoff is the sharpest live example of a structural pressure that has been building for years: European banks are too fragmented to compete with US megabanks at scale, and PE capital is simultaneously targeting undervalued financial services assets across the continent. Commerzbank's defensive restructuring — 3,000 job cuts and upgraded targets — follows the same playbook as other contested European financials M&A. Watch for the ECB's supervisory response to UniCredit's qualifying holding application as the critical gating event; that decision will set the precedent for the next wave of cross-border eurozone bank deals. London M&A and financial regulation practices that can straddle German, Italian, and EU-level regulatory frameworks are best positioned for the mandates this consolidation cycle will generate.

One to Follow

EQT's ticking 'put up or shut up' deadline on its £9 billion Intertek takeover approach, following three successive rejections by Slaughter and May-advised Intertek board

The Takeover Panel will impose a deadline requiring EQT to either announce a firm intention to make an offer or withdraw, making this one of the most time-pressured live public M&A situations in the UK market. Corporate M&A, leveraged finance, and takeover defence practices at Magic Circle and elite US firms will all be generating live work as the deadline approaches.

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