PE-backed Expro withdraws IPO

Alice Murray
14 August 2015

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Expro Oilfield Services, backed by Arle Capital Partners, Goldman Sachs and AlpInvest, has cancelled its IPO plans.

The company cited market conditions as the cause of its cancelled IPO plans when notifying the SEC on Wednesday. Expro had filed for an IPO back in July 2014, which was expected to raise $400m and value the company at around $3bn.

The company raised $334m of fresh funding from investors last month. The newly raised capital was used to repay $283m of Expro's mezzanine loan facility, as well as to provide $51m of liquidity. Furthermore, the transaction saw Expro amend and extend the remaining portion of its mezzanine facility.

Expro has seen its revenues drop by 5.6% to $1.3bn for the year ending March 2015, from $1.4bn in the previous period. Furthermore, Expro's EBITDA fell by 15.1% to $326.7m from the $384.9m recorded in 2014.

In June 2008, a consortium of investors comprising Candover Partners (now Arle), Goldman Sachs and AlpInvest delisted the oil-field services provider for £1.8bn. The deal was supported with debt supplied by RBS, Lloyds, Royal Bank of Canada, HSBC and DnB Nord Bank.

Expro focuses on well flow management, providing services and products used to measure, improve, control and process flow from oil and gas wells. The Reading-based business currently employs 5,400 people globally.

The company started out as Exploration and Production Services (North Sea), founded by John Trewhella, Jim Ross and Humphrey Green in Great Yarmouth in 1973. It was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1995.