Wooden Group rejects three provides from Apollo

US non-public fairness group Apollo International has had three bids rejected to purchase London-listed power providers firm Wooden Group.

The FTSE 250 firm mentioned the bids have been all-cash proposals, the latest providing 230p per share on January 26, a 55 per cent premium in contrast with its closing worth of 148.12p on Wednesday.

The Scotland-based group mentioned it fastidiously and unanimously rejected every of the proposals — the latest equal to roughly £1.9bn taking web debt under consideration — as a result of they “considerably undervalued the repositioned group’s prospects”.

Apollo declined to remark.

The takeover makes an attempt have been made because the Aberdeen-based firm has come below stress from an activist shareholder to spice up its share worth.

Sparta Capital, based in 2021 by former Elliott Administration portfolio supervisor Franck Tuil, has referred to as on Wooden Group to purchase again its inventory to raise its valuation.

“We’re involved that the present important undervaluation makes the corporate susceptible to take over,” Sparta wrote to Wooden Group in a letter from December.

Wooden Group supplies session, administration of property and engineering providers for the power and supplies sector, and has just lately expanded into clear power initiatives resembling wind farms.

It has benefited from oil and gasoline firms in search of to delay the life cycle of their initiatives amid fears of power shortages following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In its 2022 annual report, Wooden Group mentioned its revenues rose about 8 per cent to $5.4bn and it had gained multiyear contracts with the likes of BP and Shell.

Nevertheless, the corporate’s inventory has fallen about 40 per cent over the previous yr.

A few yr in the past the corporate introduced a $100mn cost on a US anti-missile defence undertaking in Poland and delayed publication of its annual outcomes, sending shares plunging.

Underneath the UK’s takeover laws, Apollo has till March 22 to both announce its agency intention to make a suggestion for Wooden or declare it doesn’t intend to make an additional proposal.

Extra reporting by Antoine Gara in New York

This story has been up to date to replicate Wooden Group’s most modern web debt figures