Pinewood shares nosedive 30% as Apax Partners withdraws bid

Pinewood Technologies' shares plummeted this morning after private equity firm Apax Partners withdrew its takeover offer.

In a statement this morning, Pinewood defended its prospects after Apax Partners walked away from a buyout deal last week, citing 'prevailing challenging market conditions.'

Pinewood, which offers a cloud-based platform for car dealerships and manufacturers, said it remains 'very confident in the positive long-term prospects for the group'.

It comes just two weeks after Apax Partners proposed a $792million takeover bid, which sent the shares of the London-listed firm up nearly 30 per cent.

Pinewood said at the time it was in discussions to finalise a 500p per share offer, if a formal offer was tabled on or before 26 February.

Looking ahead: Pinewood provides a cloud-based platform to help car dealerships and manufacturers 

However, Apax Partners called off the deal amid a challenging market, as software stocks were rocked by a wave of new artificial intelligence tools which threaten to upend the industry.

Pinewood has doubled down on its AI-related services, buying AI firm Seez last year and taking full ownership of Pinewood North America.

'Two years ago, that strategic development would have attracted hoards of investors wanting exposure to all things AI,' said Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ bell. 'In 2026, the reverse is true as investors panic about companies being disrupted by the big AI platform providers including Anthropic and OpenAI.'

Shares plunged by 28 per cent in early trading to 312p giving up all the gains made after Apax's initial offer.

Coatsworth added: 'It's notable that Pinewood's share price hasn't simply given up the share price spike from when Apax first revealed takeover interest.

'The shares have fallen even further as investors are now worrying why a big-name bidder has suddenly walked away, and whether Pinewood is going to be lumped with the multitude of other stocks that have struggled this year due to AI disruption-related fears.'

Software firms have been in the eye of the storm of the AI market rout, with the likes of Relx, Sage and London Stock Exchange Group all suffering huge share price falls.

Pinewood sought to reassure investors this morning, saying that the firm remains 'at the forefront of technology innovation' which has been 'underpinned by recent strategic progress.'

It reiterated its medium-term guidance of underlying Ebitda of between £58 and £62million for 2028.

In its statement last week, Apax said it reserved the right to table another offer for Pinewood within six months if a third party bids, the board agrees to restart talks or there is a material change in circumstances.

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