Shares in oil services company Expro closed at a record 1259p after the company revealed it had received a takeover approach.
The firm, which employs 750 people in Aberdeen, told the stock exchange it had received "a very preliminary proposal which may or may not lead to an offer for the company".
The announcement was made in response to its rising share price and prompted a further surge with shares closing the day 36% up. Expro said a further statement will be made at the appropriate time.
The news comes amid wider industry merger and acquisition activity. In December, Aberdeen-based oil and gas drilling specialist Abbot Group agreed to a £906m offer by US private equity group First Reserve.
Expro International could be attractive to private equity firms or trade buyers, analysts reckon. There has even been speculation that national oil companies such as Saudi Arabia's Saudi Aramco could seek positions in the oil services sector.
Sustained increases in demand for Expro International's have helped the company record strong growth in profits in recent periods.
Expro's turnover increased 73% to £519m in 2006-07 driven by organic growth in the North Sea and acquisitions in the Norwegian sector.
Blue Oar Securities analyst Craig Howie yesterday recommended investors hold on to their Expro shares as trade buyers and private equity companies "have both demonstrated a recent willingness to make blockbuster offers to secure M&A targets".
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article