The directors at Northern Ireland-based camera manufacturer Andor Technologies have withdrawn their acceptance of a takeover bid from Thorndale Trading.
Thorndale has offered 73 pence per share, or £21.8 million (€27.5 million) for Andor.
In a statement this morning Andor said they "no longer consider the basic cash terms of the Thorndale offer to be fair and reasonable".
As a result the independent directors at Andor said they "unanimously withdraw their recommendation that all Andor shareholders vote in favour" of the offer. The deal had been backed by management.
The directors say they made the decision, in conjunction with their advisors Landsbanki Securities, in light of the profit forecasts for this year contained in an Andor trading update released earlier this month.
In this morning's statement, the Andor directors say they have received a request from Thorndale to adjourn the egm to allow it further time to consider its position. Andor said it plans to apply adjourn the egm and a court meetong due on September 24th for 14 days.
The Thorndale offer is a 30 per cent premium to the share price on July 23rd, when the offer period began.
Thorndale is understood to hold 2.1 per cent of Andor's existing issued share capital.
Rumours of a rival bid have been circulating for some time with Kingspan founder Eugene Murtagh reported to be buying shares. He and Andor's founder, Hugh Cormican, hold around 12 per cent of Andor's shares.
:quality(70)/s3.amazonaws.com/arc-authors/irishtimes/64c7504b-f9dd-4cbf-ad7c-534bbb1857e7.png)