Cardno has made its first formal response to Crescent Capital Partners, with chairman John Marlay criticising the private equity firm's "opportunistic" bid that would hurt shareholders by reducing liquidity of the stock. Shareholders should reject the $3.15-a-share offer, he said.

In its first substantial statement since the $215 million partial takeover bid Crescent made on Monday, the embattled engineering consultancy also called on shareholders to back all the resolutions at next week's annual general meeting, including the remuneration report over which Crescent looks likely to score a first strike.