Arcadis shares slide after Canada's WSP ends takeover pursuit

By Reuters News

Sept 23 (Reuters) - Shares in consultancy and engineering firm Arcadis ARDS.AS dropped around 7% on Wednesday after Canadian peer WSP Global WSP.TO abandoned its potential takeover of the Dutch company.

WSP's decision, disclosed after European stock markets closed on Tuesday, ends a months-long pursuit whose existence was first reported by Reuters in July.

The Canadian group said a combination could only be pursued through a negotiated transaction supported by Arcadis' board and that it saw no path to advance a deal without the company's cooperation.

Arcadis on Wednesday reiterated that its executives had unanimously rejected WSP's offers for "fundamentally undervaluing Arcadis' intrinsic value, strategic position and future prospects".

The last of two unsolicited proposals valued Arcadis at €51.50 per share, or about €5.2 billion ($5.9 billion) including debt.

Shares in Arcadis fell to the bottom of Europe's benchmark Stoxx 600 index .STOXX and were on track for their worst day since February as of 0830 GMT.

($1 = 0.8764 euros)

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