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Private equity can't offload offshore through offering: Expro Oilfield Services withdraws IPO

August 12, 2015

Expro Oilfield Services, which appraises offshore oil and gas wells and provides flow management services, withdrew its plans for an initial public offering on Wednesday citing market conditions.

The company originally filed in July 2014 for an IPO that we estimate could have raised $400 million. It last filed in September 2014 with updated 2Q14 financials.

Expro was bought for $3.4 billion in May 2008 when a consortium of PE investors including Arle Capital Partners (previously Candover), Goldman Sachs and AlpInvest outbid an offer from competitor Halliburton. As of June 30, 2014, it had $2.3 billion in debt (4.8x LTM adj. EBITDA).

The Reading, United Kingdom-based company was founded in 1973 and booked $1.4 billion in sales for the 12 months ended June 30, 2014. It had not selected a ticker, an exchange or underwriters.