Tony O'Reilly's Valentia group has asked Eircom shareholders to take no further action while it considers whether to increase its bid for the former state phone company. The head of the Eircom employee share ownership trust has said, meanwhile, that the ESOT is still backing Valentia. Con Scanlon called the difference between Valentia's €1.27 cash offer, and eIsland's €1.36 bid "peanuts".
Con Scanlon complained to RTÉ that the Eircom board did not consult the ESOT before it recommended the eIsland offer to shareholders late on Friday night. Mr Scanlon said that he found it strange that Eircom chairman, Ray McSharry, said that the ESOT would be happy with the deal, when he had not consulted them.
Mr Scanlon said that Valentia's €1.27 offer represented "a very full price", and said that the ESOT was responsible for squeezing a higher bid out of the Tony O'Reilly-led consortium. He said that it was "totally untrue" that the ESOT was predisposed against Denis O'Brien, and that the ESOT would consider any proposal that was put to it. He said that the ESOT's advisors had written to eIsland this morning, requesting more information on the bid.
eIsland said earlier today that it was putting new proposals to the Eircom employees to gain their support for its latest bid to buy the former state telephone company.
