Halliburton closes in on Expro

Halliburton is battling it out with Goldman Sachs Capital Partners and Candover for UK oil services company, Expro International Group.

The private equity duo have teamed up and offered £1.6bn for the business, but Halliburton has trumped this with a £1.7bn bid proposal. It falls short of a firm intention.

Umbrellastream, the name of the consortium majority owned by the two private equity houses alongside minority stake holder AlpInvest, had it’s bid accepted in April, and this was followed the next day by a Halliburton announcement that it was in talks with Expro over a possible bid. Expro was in talks with the UK Takeover Panel to pressure the US energy giant make its intentions clear.

Expro is a provider of services and products that measure, improve, control and process flow from high-value oil and gas wells. It employs more than 4,000 highly-trained people in 50 countries through a regional operational structure. Expro is supported by product centres in Europe and North America and a corporate office in the UK.