Weir Group shares gain on talk of possible interest from Flowserve
Weir Group’s [LON:WEIR] price gained 5.96% on Friday, 26 February on talk that the UK-based engineering company might attract takeover interest from Dallas, Texas-based Flowserve [NYSE:FLS], The Daily Mail reported. The newspaper’s market report section did not cite a source for the speculation.
Flowserve has previously indicated interest in Weir, the item said. The oilfield services company approached Weir in 1999 with a USD 978m offer, which Weir rejected, the article noted.
Weir this week reported a 24% fall in orders, a 22% decline in revenues and a pre-tax profit 47% lower than the previous year and cautioned that profits will probably fall further this year, the report added.
A market report in the Financial Times said Flowserve had withdrawn from a conference it was booked to appear at this week.
Flowserve has previously been mentioned as a possible bidder for Weir and for UK-based rival IMI [LON:IMI], the FT item said.
Weir Group’s share price closed up at in London on Friday, giving the company a market capitalisation of GBP 1.99bn (EUR 2.52bn).
Daily Mail, Financial Times