US giant GE rumoured to be after Wellstream

The firm revealed last month that it had received "a number of preliminary approaches" for the business, but did not identify its suitors.

GE's Aberdeen oil services arm is said to have made the initial move for Newcastle-based Wellstream, with an offer price mooted at more than 800 million, according to a Sunday newspaper report.

It would be the biggest deal for GE in Britain since it bought medical equipment maker Amersham in 2003, but would also mark the latest foreign takeover tussle for a UK company.

UK engineering and manufacturing group Tomkins was recently bought by Onex, Canada's biggest publicly traded private equity group, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, for some 2.9 billion.

It is thought that GE's Aberdeen-based Vetco Gray business made the approach for Wellstream, with other bidders since coming forward.

GE yesterday declined to comment.

Wellstream has reportedly hired investment banks Rothschild and Credit Suisse to lead a defence strategy.

While a successful bid from GE could see Wellstream fall into foreign hands, it spent much of its history under American ownership and was founded in Florida in 1983. It was bought by Dresser Industries in 1995, which oversaw the building of its state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Newcastle two years later.

The group then became part of US oil company Halliburton after Dresser merged with the firm, but was then bought again in 2003 by private equity before being listed on the London stock exchange in 2007.

Wellstream employs more than 850 worldwide, of which the bulk - about 400 - work in Newcastle. It was not immediately available for comment.