WSP Raises Arcadis Acquisition Offer To €51.50 After Initial Rejection

(RTTNews) - Friday, WSP Global Inc. (WSP.TO) confirmed that it has made an indicative proposal to the Executive Board and Supervisory Board of Arcadis N.V., recommending public offer for the entire issued and outstanding ordinary share capital of Arcadis for a consideration of 51.50 euros per ordinary share.

This comes as WSP submitted an initial non-binding indicative proposal to acquire Arcadis for 48.50 euros per share in cash, which was rejected by Arcadis on July 14.

Under the recent proposal, the consideration would be approximately half cash and half WSP shares overall, and Arcadis shareholders would have the ability to select their preferred option.

The engineering and professional services consulting firm believes that the acquisition would bring together two complementary businesses, which would enhance client delivery capabilities and strengthen the combined platform's scale, diversification and resilience.

If accepted, the combination of WSP and Arcadis would be accretive and yield significant synergies and operational leverage opportunities. The deal is expected to be high single-digit percentage accretive before any synergies and mid-teens percentage accretive to WSP's adjusted net earnings per share1 once synergies are realized.

WSP added that it would welcome the Lovinklaan Foundation and Katalys to become among its leading shareholders. If they opt to receive only WSP shares, the non-foundation shareholders will receive approximately 65 percent cash and 35 percent WSP shares as consideration.

Currently, WSP's stock is trading at C$162.72, up 1.32 percent on the Toronto Exchange.