Stork, a listed Dutch industrial conglomerate, saw its shares plunge today after the firm revealed it had been unable to attract an acceptable private equity bid. It had been hoping to receive offers of about €2.4bn ($3.1bn).

Stork has spent €20m investigating a possible public-to-private deal, appointing Dutch bank ABN AMRO in February to contact interested parties. However, despite 19 initial expressions of interest from buyout firms, only one formal offer was eventually submitted, which proved unacceptable to Stork's management.