Peel bid team shunned again by Forth Ports

PEEL Holdings and its partners have failed in a third bid for Forth Ports, worth £14 per share or £640m.

The Manchester property and investment group – which has a large ports portfilio including Mersey Docks and the Manchester Ship Canal – teamed up with infrastructure fund Arcus and RREEF, the German property fund, to form the Northstream consortium.

The bid partners, who between them own 27.4% of Forth’s stock, were said to be amazed at the rejection of the offer, which was 34% premium to the share price in February..

Forth’s board said it had rejected the new  offer because it fell far short of its value of the business, which operates six Scottish ports, including Grangemouth, Leith and Dundee, as well as Tilbury on the Thames.

The board is likely to come under fire from investors supporting the Northstream bid at its annual meeting in Edinburgh tomorrow.

The Northstream consortium has been stalking Forth since January. Its first bid was for £12.85p, which was raised in April to £13.40.

Sources close to Peel said a fourth bid was not likely.