The board of Ricardo is recommending shareholders accept WSP鈥檚 takeover offer of 430 pence per share, a 28% premium on the previous day鈥檚 335p closing price.
Ricardo is an automotive, environmental and engineering consulting company, listed on the London Stock Exchange, with approximately 2,700 employees in more than 20 countries.
WSP, which already has 72,600 staff in more than 50 countries, said that it was particularly interested in Ricardo鈥檚 environmental and energy businesses, which have limited overlap with WSP current offering.
Ricardo has niche areas of high value expertise including policy, strategy and economics; air quality, nature and water management; corporate sustainability and energy market modelling. The acquisition will allow the WSP to provide a broader range of complementary services to its clients, it said.
Ricardo's rail business, supporting OEMs in the rail sector, also fits with WSP鈥檚 ambitions.
Ricardo chair Mark Clare said: "Ricardo has made significant progress with its strategy to transform the business into a world leading environmental and energy transition consultancy, with its prospects underpinned by global mega trends supportive of long-term growth.
鈥淗owever, while good progress has been made, there are further steps required to complete the transformation which bring some execution risks against the background of short-term market challenges and the uncertain geopolitical and macroeconomic backdrop.
鈥淎gainst this background, WSP has made a compelling offer which represents a highly attractive premium to recent average trading levels and provides certain value in cash today for Ricardo shareholders. Importantly, the Ricardo directors believe that the acquisition will provide enhanced career opportunities for Ricardo's employees within the WSP Group as well as access for our clients to a broader service offering."
Alexander L'Heureux, president and chief executive of WSP Global, said: "The proposed acquisition of Ricardo perfectly aligns with WSP's vision for sustainable, compounding growth and our clear ambitions to expand in advisory, energy transition, water solutions and the rail sector over the next three years. We are poised to enhance our ability to deliver innovative solutions as we combine our global reach and resources with Ricardo's complementary expertise. Moreover, the shared entrepreneurial spirit and technical excellence between our teams position us to create further value for our clients. We look forward to welcoming Ricardo's talented professionals to WSP and seizing new opportunities with our broadened service offering."
Science Group, an international science & technology consultancy, built up a 21.8% stake in Ricardo between February and May this year. To facilitate the WSP offer, Science Group has entered into a share purchase agreement with WSP to sell 12,443,655 Ricardo shares, equivalent to 19.99% of the issued share capital, at the offer price. This will net Science Group 拢53.5m, effectively doubling its money in just weeks.
The acquisition of Ricardo by WSP is expected to complete in the fourth quarter of 2025.
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