McLeod bid for Wheway is final

MCLEOD Russel yesterday issued a 'take it or leave it' ultimatum to shareholders of Wheway Watson, by declaring final its pounds 12.6m takeover bid for the troubled environmental engineer.

The bid was launched less than two weeks ago, and the 60-day bid clock started yesterday when McLeod, a paint maker, despatched its formal offer document.

The decision to declare the bid final means McLeod can revise or increase its one-for-10 share terms only if another bidder enters the fray.

McLeod holds 7.4 per cent of Wheway's shares, which yesterday closed at 9.5p, up 0.25p. McLeod fell 2p to 88p.

Nigel Openshaw, McLeod's chairman, acknowledged it was unusual to declare a bid final so early in the proceedings, but added: 'I think the institutional people are pretty fed up with the mismanagement and the losses.

'I think we are the white knight. We'll have to work to make it (Wheway) a good thing. We will have to sweat a bit.'

He called on Wheway's board to recommend the bid and put the company's employees and creditors 'out of their agony'.

McLeod launched its bid after merger talks between the two companies failed to reach agreement on price.

Last month Hugh Ashton, chairman of Wheway, which lost pounds 2.8m in the second half last year, admitted it was a mistake for the company to have paid its 1p interim dividend last year.

The payout cost Wheway pounds 1.4m, only pounds 2,000 less than the profit and loss account reserves left at the time that the dividend was announced.