Shares in Cable & Wireless rallied this morning following reports that the troubled telecoms group is being marked for takeover.
According to the
Financial Times, an approach was made last month by Pacific Century Cyberworks, a Hong Kong telephone company owned by Richard Li. The paper says that a £2.4 billion bid was tabled but was turned down by the new C&W chairman Richard Lapthorne.
It is claimed that PCCW was willing to pay at least 100p a share in cash, significantly above its market value. However Lapthorne, who was appointed on January 10 (see Lapthorne Moves Into C&W Hotseat), did not consider the offer serious enough to put to the board.
Cable & Wireless remains in turmoil after its stock was downgraded to junk status (see C&W Stock Nosedives Following Downgrade) and the company is currently operating without a chief executive following the resignation of Graham Wallace (see Beleaguered C&W Chief To Exit The Fray).
For its part, PCCW has denied making any bid but the speculation alone led to shares in C&W rising by 2.5p to 60.25p at 12:30 today.
