UK airports operator TBI, owner of Belfast International Airport, yesterday reversed its opposition to a £516 million sterling (€817 million) hostile bid from France's Vinci, citing market turmoil after the US attacks for its change of heart.
But the French construction company declined to comment on TBI's decision to recommend the offer. "We are not commenting at the moment," said a spokesman for Vinci, the world's largest construction company.
TBI said it had decided to advise shareholders to accept a 90 pence per share offer from Vinci. The airports firm previously rejected it as too cheap.
Shares in TBI gained 21 per cent to close at 781/2p, off an earlier low of 65p, but were still well below their high of 100p reached the day Vinci launched its offer last month.
The firm, which owns London's Luton airport, said that in the wake of the terrorist attacks in the US last week and the market turmoil that followed, an offer at 90p appeared "fair and reasonable".
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/VR3765MFOBH2NMV2QNICYDF67M.png)