Oxford Instruments’ €188.5m offer for Andor ‘premature’

Belfast-based Andor Technology has described a bid proposal of around £159 million (€188.5 million) from Britain's Oxford Instruments as "premature and unhelpful" in light of ongoing negotiations between the two companies.

Oxford Instruments, which designs and manufactures tools for industry and research, announced today that it plans to offer £5 per share in cash for Andor, which manufactures scientific digital cameras for academic, industrial and government applications.

The two companies have been in discussions since Andor received Oxford’s first indicative cash offer on July 9th. The indicative cash offer price per share has since increased by 19 per cent, during which time Andor’s share price has increased by more than 30 per cent, the company said today.

In the offer, Oxford Instruments reserved the right to make an offer on less favourable terms to Andor shareholders.

“Given the level of uncertainty and conditionality, the board of Andor felt that it could not properly consider the proposal,” Andor said in a statement.

“But it did confirm to Oxford Instruments that it remained willing to continue discussions to explore whether a definitive, acceptable offer might be found that was in the interests of Andor shareholders.”

Under UK takeover rules, Oxford Instruments has until 5pm GMT on December 10th to make a firm offer or walk away.