Posted: 15th Aug, 2005 By: MarkJ
THUS has trumped a £780m offer from Cable & Wireless (C&W) for Enerigs by going public with its own £800m bid:
Thus submitted a proposal to the Chelys board on 27 July. On 1 August it received a letter from the Chelys board that it was "was in a period of exclusivity with another party".
Until the emergence of Thus today, the general thinking among analysts was that C&W was in a field of one in a list of prospective buyers for Energis.
C&W is currently playing hardball with a group of Energis debt holders which are seeking the full principal on their debt - in other words they want more money. The company says it will not increase its £780m offer and will walk away if 75 per cent of the debt holders do not accept it by end of play today.It's now much more obvious why the banks behind Energis have been trying to squeeze extra cash out of C&W, although it remains to be seen whether any of this can impact today's deadline. More @
The Register.