THE company stalking Dulux paints group ICI has been granted more time to prepare a formal bid.Dutch group Akzo Nobel originally had until 5pm yesterday meet the Takeover Panel's “put up or shut up” deadline, requiring it either to put forward a firm offer or to walk away.
THE company stalking Dulux paints group ICI has been granted more time to prepare a formal bid.
Dutch group Akzo Nobel originally had until 5pm yesterday meet the Takeover Panel's “put up or shut up” deadline, requiring it either to put forward a firm offer or to walk away.
But with ICI having granted the group access to its books only at the start of the week, after Akzo put forward an improved indicative offer valuing the UK company at £8billion, the panel agreed to extend the deadline to 10am on Monday.
Should Akzo not meet this deadline, it would be prevented from bidding again for six months - unless it reaches an agreement with the ICI board or a rival bidder comes forward.
Akzo, whose initial proposal in June valued ICI at £7.2billion, is keen to acquire ICI's Dulux paints business, which includes a factory in Stowmarket with a workforce of 77. A further 118 people work for the UK group at its ICI Imagedata business at Brantham, on the Suffolk-Essex border.
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