Aberdeen's biggest company Wood revealed yesterday that US private-equity firm Apollo Global Management has made a fourth bid for the business.
The slightly-improved offer values the operation at £1.64billion.
The leading engineering and consultancy business said its board believes this latest proposal made on Monday continued to undervalue the group and was therefore minded to reject the move.
It added: “The board will continue to engage with its shareholders and intends to engage further, on a limited basis, with Apollo.
“There can be no certainty either that an offer will be made, nor as to the terms on which any offer might be made. Further announcements will be made as appropriate.”
Wood shares closed yesterday up nearly 25p at 219p – a jump on the day of just under 13%.
Share price
However, this price was still below the latest proposal from Apollo of 237p per share.
Apollo now has until March 22 to either announce a firm intention to make an offer for the Aberdeen group or state that it does not intend to.
Wood said last month that it had rejected three unsolicited bids from the private-equity firm.
News of the moves led to Wood shares shooting up.
The third approach was received on January 26 and proposed a 230p cash payment per share. That bid valued the Granite City firm at just under £1.6billion.
Apollo’s interest in the company has fuelled fears that cheaply-valued UK businesses are vulnerable to foreign takeovers this year, as cash-rich private-equity firms and corporates take advantage of suppressed prices in London.
Targeted
Wood is the latest UK company to be targeted by private equity.
One of the biggest private-equity takeovers in recent years was that of the supermarket chain Morrisons. New York-based Clayton, Dubilier & Rice took it over in a £7billion buyout in October 2021.
Wood's worldwide workforce is now around 37,000, with more than 6,000 of them in the UK.
The Granite City team currently totals 4,500.
The business has come a long way since Sir Ian Wood saw the huge opportunity presented by the birth of the UK offshore oil industry in the 1970s.
The inspirational entrepreneur transformed the family-owned fishing operation into a multinational oil services company listed on the London Stock Exchange.
Order book
Wood now has an annual turnover of more than £4billion, and the order book for this year currently stands at nearly £5billion.
Energy services are responsible for two-thirds of its business, while materials make up the other third.
Materials is a wide-ranging sector which takes in everything from designing facilities for pharmaceutical companies to delivering projects in the transportation and water sectors.