Rival bidders clamour for Thistle

03 April 2003 by
Rival bidders clamour for Thistle

Thistle is in talks with numerous potential bidders to rival Singapore investment company BIL's £555m hostile takeover offer on Monday.

The group has been courting offers from hotel groups including Starwood and Accor as well as equity groups such as Blackstone, owner of the Savoy Group.

The offers, claimed Thistle, give it a number of options including competing takeover offers to BIL and offers to buy some of its properties.

BIL, which owns 46% of Thistle, said it would not sell its shares for 12 months, however, potentially blocking alternative bids.

Thistle rejected BIL's repeated bid, saying it was "wholly inadequate" and "opportunistic". Thistle's chairman, Ian Burke, said "the offer also fails to recognise the very significant value BIL would be in a position to realise from Thistle if its offer succeeds".

BIL made the same 115p per share bid early last month, but City analysts have estimated that a realistic value of Thistle's shares would be closer to 140p. Thistle claims its assets are worth 211p per share.

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