Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK
| AWG tells WestLB that its £900 million bid is completely unacceptable |
| Written by Business Weekly | |
| Tuesday, 11 February 2003 | |
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The cynics have been out in force this week and many of them have been following events at AWG – subject of a £900 million bid by WestLB.
The cynics have been out in force this week and many of them have been following events at AWG – subject of a £900 million bid by WestLB. The board of the Huntingdon company didn’t even need to study the small print before rejecting the bank’s approach. AWG confirms it received a “preliminary verbal approach” from WestLB mooting a possible offer for the company at 510 pence per share. The proposal was subject to a number of conditions, including the approval of the board of WestLB and the resolution of issues arising out of the bank’s ownership of Mid Kent Water. AWG’s directors “unanimously concluded that it fell well short of an acceptable price and this has been communicated to WestLB.” Now it gets interesting: AWG added outside of that statement that it understood that Gordon Morrison – brother of Sir Fraser Morrison – was involved with WestLB’s approach. AWG is suing Sir Fraser, and Steve McBrierty, the former chief operating officer, for £130m over alleged “misrepresentations” in connection with the £263m sale in 2000 to AWG of Sir Fraser’s construction company, Morrison’s. West LB is also in advanced talks to buy Odeon Cinemas from Cinven in a £450m deal but AWG directors presumably won’t be queueing up for popcorn. “That’s all folks!” |
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