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Shard's WSP is snapped up by Canadian rival for £278m

 

Tom Bawden
Friday 08 June 2012 23:59 BST
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WSP, the engineering consultancy that did the structural design on London's Shard tower, has agreed to be snapped up by Genivar, a smaller Canadian counterpart for C$442m (£278m) in cash.

The 435p-a-share offer for the tall buildings specialist, which has also worked on the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, represents a 67 per cent premium to WSP's closing share price of 260p on Thursday night. Shares in the company soared by 175p, or 67 per cent, to 435p yesterday, signalling confidence the deal would go through.

WSP, whose projects include structural engineering work on the Freedom Tower project in New York and was involved in revamping Birmingham's Bullring shopping centre, has worked on some of the world's most high-profile building projects.

But it is thought to have come under pressure to sell after a profits warning last June.

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