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TheMoodieReport.com: "Ferrovial increases BAA offer to 900 pence; BAA rejects approach once more � 30/05/06
Source: �The Moodie Report
By Martin Moodie and Dermot Davitt
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UK. A consortium led by Spanish infrastructure group Ferrovial yesterday raised its takeover offer for BAA to 900 pence per share from a previous 810.

The new bid is open until 1.00 pm on 19 June, Ferrovial said in a statement. But BAA immediately rejected the renewed offer.

The new bid values BAA at about �9.7 billion and offers a +46% premium over the UK airport company's average share price for the 12 months ending 6 February, the day before speculation began about the possibility of an offer for BAA.

Ferrovial said this morning: 'The increased offers represent extremely attractive value for BAA shareholders and BAA convertible bondholders respectively. The Board is disappointed that BAA has chosen to reject such offers without further discussion. It remains the preference of the Board of the Offeror to proceed with the transaction on a recommended basis. However, given the unwillingness of the BAA Board to engage with the Offeror and the attractiveness of the increased offers, the Board of the Offeror has decided to announce the terms of the increased Offers.'

Effectively the gloves have now come off in the takeover saga. Ferrovial said: �In its defence document of 25 May 2006, BAA aspires to persuade shareholders that it is worth 940 pence per BAA share or more. ADI believes that this is not credible, as BAA�s valuation is based on a number of highly questionable assumptions.�

In a damning assessment of BAA�s performance, it claimed: �BAA has underperformed the FTSE Utilities, FTSE 100 and FTSE All Share indices, on a Total Sha"