RENTOKIL Initial erected the barriers against former Granada boss Sir Gerry Robinson's potential £3bn takeover bid today, saying it would not hand his Raphoe Management any secret information about the company until it comes up with a credible bid plan.
The pest control-towashroom cleaning group revealed that Raphoe's adviser, Europa Partners, had 'informed the company yesterday evening that Raphoe is not ready to put forward a proposal'.
Rentokil said it responded by telling Raphoe that "while it will consider any proposal when made, it would not be appropriate to pass Raphoe information that is not available to other public investors unless and until a proposal is received that the board considers would be in the best interests of shareholdersî.
Rentokil yesterday said halfyear pre-tax profits fell 19% and unveiled a 28-point plan to turn the company around over the next 18 months.
With new chief executive Doug Flynn starting to make presentations to key institutional investors today, the group asked Robinson, via Europa's David von Simson, to put forward his proposals last night. It became clear the Robinson camp was not ready to do so. No one from Raphoe would comment today.
Raphoe's plan is to bid for Rentokil in a way that would leave present shareholders owning about 95% of the equity, with Robinson becoming executive chairman in return for a 5% stake.
The shares today fell back 2¾p to 159½p.