AIRPORT baggage handler Servisair has outlined why the company is rejecting the £81m takeover offer made by Oxfordshire engineering and property management group Amey.

The company said the bid was "unsolicited and inadequate" and has posted a defence document to shareholders urging them to ignore Amey's bid, which values Servisair at 200p a share.

The offer is at a premium of 72 per cent to Servisair's closing share price on December 11, the last day before several approaches were announced.

Servisair confirmed that Amey's bid may not be the only one in the offing, and a white knight bidder may bump up the asking price for the company.

Stephen Walls, a director with Servisair, has informed the board that he is connected with a possible alternative offer for the company.

The takeover bid was seen as Amey's attempt to move in on the lucrative and expanding market of European baggage handling, which is being opened up to competition throughout Europe.

Amey, based at Sutton Courtenay, near Abingdon, said nothing in the defence document changed its view that its offer was a full and fair price.

It said while Servisair promised jam tomorrow, it was promising a real premium on the share price today.

A statement by the company said: "Amey is confident that Servisair shareholders will be less influenced by statements about the strength of Servisair's market position than by its management's failure to exploit it.

"Servisair's shareholders have seen the value of their investment shrink as its management has continued to disappoint the market."

Story date: Thursday 11 February

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